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HirTED BY GALES & SEATON. 

1824. 



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UEtlTERED IS THE HOTTSE OF REPKESEXTATIVES, 

January 20, 1824. 



/ 

On motion of Mr. Webster, the House resolved Uself into^a 
committee of the whole, on the state of the Union, Mr. Taylor la 

the chair. . . . . , i .u 

Mr. Clay offered the following, which he desired to lay on the 

table for consideration. 

" Resolved by the Seriate and House of Representatives of the United States oj 
America, in Congress assembled. That the people of these States woull not see, 
without serious inquietude, any forcible interposition, by the Alhed Powers ot 
Europe, in behalf of Spain, to reduce to their former subjection those parts 
of the continent of America which have proclaimed and established tor them- 
selves, respectively, Independent Governments, and which have been solemn- 
Iv recognized by the United States." . 

" The committee of the whole having resumed the consideration ot 
the resolution recommending an appropriation to defray the expense 
of a mission to Greece, 

Mr. Poinsett, of South Carolina, rose, and addressed the House, 
in a speech of some length, which he concluded by moving the follow- 

> ing amendment: 

"Resolved, That this House view with deep interest the heroic struggle of 
the Greeks to elevate themselves to the rank of a free and independent nation; 
and to unite with the President in the sentiments he has expressed in their fa- 
vor; in sympathy for their sufferings, in interest in their welfare, and in ardent 
wishes for their success." 

" Resolved, That this House concur in the sentiments expressed by the Pre- 
sident, in relation to this hemisphere, and would view any attempt to oppress 
or control the free governments of America south of us, by the Allied Powers 
of Europe, as dangerous to tlie peace and happiness of the United Stiles; and 
that such measures as may be deemed expedient to protect them froi-.i the 
attacks of any power, other than that of Spain alone, and unassisted, will meet 
its cordial support." 

[The latter resolution was withdrawn by Mr. P. in consequence of a resolu- 
tion to a similar effect having been laid upon the table by the Speaker. This 
explanation is necessary to an understanding of Mr. Randolph's remarks.] 

Mr. RANDOLPH then rose, and said, that this was perhaps one of 
finest anil prettiest thomes for declamation ever presetited to a deli- 
berative assemblv. But, it appeared to him in a light very difterent 



from any that had as yet been thrown upon it. He looked at the 
roeasu'-e as one fraught with deep and deadly danger to the best in- 
terests and to the liberties of the American people; and so satisfied 
was he of this, that he had been constrained by that conviction to 
overcome the almost insuperable repugnance he felt to throwing him- 
self upon the notice of the House; but he felt it to be his duty to 
raise his voice against both the propositions. 

He would not. at this time, go at length into the subject: his in- 
tention in rising was, merely, to move that the comlnitt^ e rise, and 
that both of the resolutions might be printed. He wished to have 
some time to think of this business — to deliberate, b<?fore we took 
this leap in the dark into the Archipelago, or the Black Sea, or into 
the wide-mouthed La Plata. He might be permitted to add one or 
two other views. He knew, he said, that the post of honor was on 
the other side of the House, the post of toil and of difficulty on this 
side, if, indeed, any body should be with him on this side. It was a 
difficult and an invidious task, to stem the torrent of public senti- 
ment, when all the generous feelings of the human heart were ap- 
pealed to. But, sir, said Mr. R., I was delegated to this House to 
guard the interests of the People -)f the United States, not to guard 
the rights of other people; and, if it was doubted, even in the case of 
England, that land, fertile above all other lands, (not excepting 
Greece herself,) in great and glorious men — if it was doubted whe- 
ther her interference in the politics of the continent, though separat- 
ed from it only by a narrow strait, not so wide as the Chesapeake, 
as our Mediterranean sea — had redounded either to her honor or her 
advantage; if the effect of that interference has been a monumental 
debt that paralyses the arm that might now strike for Greece, that 
certainly would have struck for Spain, can it be for qs t<» seek, in the 
very bottom of the Mediterranean, for a quarrel with the Ottoman 
Porte.f^ And this, while we have an ocean rolling between.-^ AVhile we 
are in that sea without a single port in which to refit a gun-boat, 
and while the powers of Barbary lie in succession in our path, shall 
we open this Pandnra's box of political evils .'' It has been wisely 
and truly said, that it is possible the mere rumor of our interference 
may produce, at Constantinople, or at Smyrna, that which will drive 
us at once into a war. We all know the connection that subsists be- 
tween the Barbary states and what we may denominate the mother 
power. Are we prepared for a war with these pirates.'' (not that we 
are not perfectly competent to such a war, but) Does it suit our finan- 
ces.^ Does it, sir, suit our magnificent projects of roads and canals? 
Does it suit the temper of our people,^ D'-es ir promote their inter- 
ests.^ Will it add to their happiness? Sir, why did we remain su- 
pine while Piedmont and Naples were crushed by Austria? Why did 
we stand aloof, while the Sjanish peninsula wasagain reduced under 
legititnatP government? If we did not interfere then, why now? 
{Sir, I ref-ryou to the memorable attempted interference in the case 
of one of the loftiest and most unbendingof statesmen, when he was in 
the zenith ofliis glory — when all his dazzling beams were unshorn—I 
jnean Mr. Pitt; and 1 refer you as a commentary on that attempted in- 



.-. ..^A«L.;.'Uf^^:vi .' 



terference, to the speech of Mr. Fox; a speech fraught with the wisdom 
of a real statesman. [Here Mr. Randolph paused — when he resumed, 
he said,] I perceive, sir, that I have overcalculated my strength. 
I feel I am not what I was. The eftbrt of speaking is too much for 
me. The physical effort has suspended, (as, when physical effort is 
violent,, it always does,) the exercise of the intellectual faculty. 
What I wished to say was, that this Quixotism, in regard either to 
Greece or to Soutli. America, or, I will add, to North America, (so 
much of it as lies without our own boundary— I mean Mexico and Gua- 
tirnala,) that this Quixotism is notwhat the sober and reflecting minds 
of our people require at our hands. Sir, we are in debt as individuals, 
and we are in debt as a nation; and never, since the days of Saul 
and David, of Cfesar and Catiline, could a more unpropitious period 
have been found for such an undertaking. The state of society is 
too much disturbed. There is always, in a debtor, a tendency either 
to torpor or to desperation — neither condition is friendly to such de- 
liberations. But he would suspend what he had further to say on 
the subject. For himself, he saw as much danger, and more, in the 
resolution proposed by the gentleman from Kentucky, as in that of 
the gentleman from Massachusetts. The war that may follow on 
the one is a distant war; it lies on the other side of the ocean. The 
war that may be induced by the other, is a war at hand; it is oo the 
same continent. He was equally opposed to the amendment as well 
as to that which had since been offered to the original resolutions. 
Let us look a little further at all of them. Let us sleep upon them 
before we pass resolutions which, 1 will not say, are mere loops to 
hang ssjeeches on, and thereby commit the nation to a war, the is- 
sues of which it is not given to human sagacity to divine. 



HOUSE OF representativf:s, 

January 24. 

The House then again resolved itself into a Committee of the 
whole, Mr. Taylor in the chair, (m the State of the Union, and re- 
sumed the consideration of Mr. Wobstrr's resolution, for sending an 
agent to Greece, and the amendment thereto proposed by Mr. Poin- 
sett, which proposes to limit the resolve to the expression of a senti- 
ment decisively favorable to the Greek cause. 

The depending question having been stated, 

Mr. RANDOLPH rose, and said, that it was, to him, a subject of 
unfeigned regret, that the very few unpremeditated words into which, 
a few days since, he had b^-en so suddenly and unexpectedly betray- 
ed, should, in the opinion of those fir whose judgment he had much, 
greater deference than for his own, have begot a necessity for some 
further illustration. He could, with the most serious and unaffected 
sincerity, assure the Committee, that, whenevtr he was so unfortu- 
nate as to be under the necessity of trespassing on their attention, 
the pain which it gave them to listen, was not greater than that which 
he felt in addressing thom; and he hopecl that that consideration 
would secure a respectful attention to the little — the very little, that 
he had to say. 



6 

Sir, said Mr. R. the resolution before you, if we are to take the 
word of the honorable gentleman that moved it, is, in itself, almost 
nothing — a speck in the political horizon: — hut, Sir. no man better 
knows than the honorable mover, that it is from clouds of that portent 
in the moral and political as well as in the natural atmosphere, that 
storms, the most disastrous in their consequences, usually proceed. 
The resolution, in itself, is nothing, when compared with the conse- 
quences which it involves. It appears to me that the bearings and 
consequences of the measure proposed by this resolution have not 
yet been traced to their utmost extent; nor, by any means, Mr. R. , 
said, did he intend to undertake the task. But he would give the 
committee, as succinctly as he could, some of the views in which it 
presented itself to him. 

It is with serious concern and alarm, said Mr. R. that I have heard 
doctrines broached in this debate, fraught with consequences more 
disastrous to the best interests of this People, than any that I ever 
heard advanced during the five and twenty years since I have been 
honored with a seat on this floor. They imply, to my apprehension, 
a total and fundamental change of the policy pursued by this govern- /^ 

ment, ab urbe condita — from' the foundation of the Republic, to the 
present day. Are we, sir, to go on a crusade, in another hemis- 
phere, for the propagation of two objects as dear and delightful to 
my heart as to that of any gentleman in this, or in any other assem- 
bly — -Liberty and Religion — and, in the name of these holy words— 
by this powerful spell, is this nation to be conjured and beguiled out 
of the high way of Heaven — out of its present comparatively happy 
state, into all the disastrous conflicts arising from the policy of Eu- 
ropean powers, with all the consequences which flow from them? 
Liberty and Religion, Sir! Things that are yetdear, in spite of all the 
mischief that has been perpetrated in their name. I believe that nothing 
similar to this proposition is to be found in modern history, unless in the 
famousdecree of the French National Assembly, which "brought combi- 
ned Europe against them, with its united strength, and, after repeated 
struggles, finally effected the downfal of the French power. Sir, I 
am wrong — there is another example of like doctrine; and you find 
it among that strange and peculiar people — in that mysterious book, 
which is of the highest authority with them, (for it is at once their 
gosppj and their law — ) the Koran, which t:nj«ins it to be the duty of 
all good Moslems to propagate its doctrines at the point of the sword; 
by the edge of the cimetar. The character of that people is a pecu- 
liar one: they differ from every other race. It has been said, here, 
that it is four hundred years since they encamped in Europe. Sir, 
said Mr. R. they were encamped, where we now find them, before 
this country was discovered, and their title to the country which 
they occupy is at least as good as ours. They hold their possessions 
there by the same title by which all other countries are held — pos- 
session obtained, at first, by a successful employment of force, con- 
firmed by time, by usage, by prescription — the best of all possible 
titles. Their policy, Mr. R. said, had been, riot tortuous, lik<' that 
of other States of Europe, but straight forward; they had invariably 



appealed to the sword, and they held by the sword. The Russ had, 
indeed, made great encroachments on their eropire, but the ground 
had been contested inch by inch; and the acquisitions of Russia, on 
the side of Christian Europe— Livonia, Ingria, Courlat)d— Finland 
to the Gulf of Bothnia— Poland!— had been greater than she had 
made of the Mahometans. And, in consequence of this straight for- 
ward policy to which he had before referred, this peculiar people 
could boast of being the only one of the Powers of Continental Eu- 
rope, vhose capital had never been insulted by the presence of a 
foreign military f(trce. It was a curious fact, well worshy of atten- 
tion, that Constantinople was the only capital in Continental Eu- 
rope — for Moscow wah the true capital of Russia — that had never 
been in possession of an enemy. It is, indeed, true, said Mr. R. 
that the Empress CathariHe did inscribe over the gate of one of the 
cities that she won in the Krimea, (Cherson, I think,) "the roi.d to 
Byzantium:" but, sir, it has proved— perhaps too low a word for the 
subject — but a stumpy road for Russia. Who, at that day, would 
have been believed had he foretold to that august (for so she was) 
and illustrious woman, that her Cossacs of the Ukraine, and of the 
Don, would have been encamped in Paris before they reached Con- 
stantinople? Who would have been believed if he had foretold that 
a French invading force, such as the world never saw before, and, I 
trust, will never again see — would lay Moscow itself in ashes.? 
These are considerations worthy of attention before we embark in 
the project proposed by this resolotion, the consequences of which 
no human eye can divine. 

I would respectfully ask the gentleman from Massachusetts, said 
Mr. R. whether, in his very able and masterly argument — and he has 
said all that could be said upon the subject, and more than I suppos- 
ed could have been said by any man, in favor of nis resolution — 
whether he himself has not furnished an answer to his speech — I had 
not the happiness myself to hear his speech, but a friend has read it 
to me — in one of the arguments in that speech. Towards the con- 
clusion, I think, of his speech, the gentleman lays down, from Puf- 
fendorff, in reference to the honied words and pious professions of 
the Holy Alliance, that these are all surplussage, because nations 
are always supposed to be ready to do what justice and national law 
require. Well, sir, said Mr. R. if this be so — why may not the 
Greeks presume — why are they not, on this principle, bound to pre- 
sume — that this government is disposed to do all, in reference to 
them, that they ought to do, without any formal resolutions to that 
effect.'^ I ask the gentleman from Massachusetts, whether the doc- 
trine of Puffendorff does not apply as strongly to the resolution as to 
the declaration of the Allies — that is, if the resolution of the gentle- 
man be indeed that almost nothing he would have us suppose, if there 
be not something behind this nothing which divides this House (not 
horizontally as the gentleman has somewhat quaintly said — but verti- 
cally) into two unequal parties, one the advocate of a splendid sys- 
stem of crusades, the other the friends of peace and harmony; the 



8 

advocates of a fireside ■policy — for, as long as all is right at the fire- 
side, there cannot be much wrong elsewhere — whether, he repeat- 
ed, does not the doctrine of Puft'endorff apply as well to the words 
of the resolution as to the words of the Holy Alliance? 

But, sir, we have already done more than this. The President of 
the United States, the only organ of communication which the people 
have seen fit to establish between us and foreign powers, has already 
expressed ail, in reference to Greece, that the resolution goes to ex- 
press. Actum P.St — it is done — it is finished — there is an end. Not, 
Mr. R. said, that he would have the House to infer that he meant to 
express any opinion as to the policy of such a declaration — and the 
practice of responding to Presidential addresses and messages had 
gone out for, now, these two or three and twenty years. 

Mr. R. then went on to say that he had thought, if the great master 
of political philosophy could arise from the dead, or had his valuable life 
been spared till now, he would not only have been relieved from all 
his terrors on the subject of a regicide peace, but also have witnessed 
arcturn of the age of chivalry and the banishment of calculation even 
from the estimates of statesmen, which that great man could never 
have foreseen; for, the proposition now under consideration was that 
som- thing new under the sun, which Solomon himself, the wisest of 
mankind, never dreamed of. Is this all.^ No sir, said Mr. R. if 
that was all, I should not have thrown myself upon your attention. 
But this is not all. Cases have already been stated, to which the 
principle of the resolution equally applies as to that of the Greeks. 
In addition to those already put, I will take the case of Canada, if 
you will. It is known to every body, thatdiscontents have for some 
time existed in the Canadian Provinces, with the mother cou'itry 
and the measures of its government. Suppose the people of the Brit- 
ish colonies to the North of us undertake to throw off the yoke — I 
will not put the case of Jamaica, because they, unhappily, are slave 
holders — are you r<'ady to stake the peace, and welfare, and the re- 
sources of this nation, in support of Canadian independence.'' Your 
dnctrine goes that length — you cannot stop short of it. Where, in 
that case, will be the assistance of Great Britain, already referred to 
in debate as being the only spot in the world in which liberty resides 
except our own country.^ After some other observations, Mr. R. 
adduced another peopl" in valorous achievement and daring spirit 
on a footing with thtse Greeks themselves — and who had achieved 
their independence from a bondage far heavier than that of the 
Greeks to the Turks. How is it, sir, said Mr. R. that we have never 
sent an envoy to our sister republic of Hayti.'* Here is a case that 
fits — a case beyond dispute. It is not that of a people who have 
*' almost'" — (aye sir! ''* almost''" \i\xi not altogether) — who have " o/- 
7nost,^^ but perfectly achieved their independence. To attempt to 
shew that thse cases are equally within the range of the princi|)le of 
the resolution, would be to shew a disrespect to the intellects of 
those around me. The man who cannot pursue the inference, would 
not recognize my picture, though, like the Dutchman's painting, 
were written under it, " This is the man, that the horse." 



9 

There was another remark that fell from the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts—of which, Mr. R. said, he should speak, as he always 
should speak of any thing fro n that gentleman, with all the personal 
respect which may be consistent with freedom of discussitm. Among 
ether cases forcibly put by the gentleman from Mass. why he would 
embark in this insipient crusade against Mussulmen, he stated this 
as one — that they hold human beings as property. Aye, sir, said 
Mr. R.— and what savs the constitution of the United States on this 
point?— unless, indeed, that instrument is wholly to be excluded 
from consideration— unless it is to be regarded as a mere useless parch- 
ment, wortliy to be burnt, as was once actually proposed. Does not 
that constitution give its sanction to the holding of human beings as 
property? !Sir, I am not going to discuss the abstract question of 
Hbertv or slavery, or any other abstract question. I go for matters of 
fact. "But I would ask gentlemen in this House, who have the mis- 
fortune to reside on the wrong side of a certain mysterious parallel 
of latitude, to take thisquestion seriously into consideration — wheth- 
er the government of the U. States is prepared to say, that the act 
of holding human beings as property, is sufficient to place the party 
so offending under the ban of its high and mighty displeasure? 

Sir, the objections to this resolution accumulate upon me as I pro- 
ceed — vires ucqitirit eiindo. It I should attempt to go tiirough vith 
a statement of them all, and had strength to sustain me, I should do 
what I promised I would not do — I should worry and exhaust the. 
patience of this Committee. — 

-^ Sir, what are we now asked to do? To stimulate the executive to ' 
the creation of embassies. And what then? That we, or our friends^ 
may fill them. Sir, the sending embassadors abroad is one of the 
great prerogatives, if yon will, of our Executive authority — ^and we 
are, I repeat, about to stimulate the President to the creation of a 
new, and I must be permitted te say, an unnecessary embassy — a di- 
plomatic agency to Greece — that we, or our friends may profit by it. 
For, sir, it is a matter of notoriety, that all these good things are re- 
served for men who either have been, or are, de facto, members of 
this or of the other House. No doubt we shall be able to find some 
learned Theban, or some other Boeotian, willing to undertake this 
mission — perfectly willing to live upon the resources of the people, 
rather than his own. But then, said Mr. R. recurs the old fashioned 
question, Cui bono} His own, undoubtedly, but surel}' not that of 
this nation? ^ ^ 

But, it is urged, that we have received ministers from Revolution- 
ary France. — True, said Mr. R. we have; but what was Revolution- 
ary France? Our own ancient and very good ally; a substantive 
power, if any such exists on the continent of Europe, whose inde- 
pendent existence no one could doubt or dispute; unless, indeed, the 
disciples of Berkely, who deny that there is any such thing as mat- 
ter. But, sir, have the United States always received the ministers 
that are sent to them from foreign powers? How long did the person 



10 

who was appointed diplomatic a^^ent here from Spain (Don Onis) 
lin2;cr in your anti-chambt-rs before he was acknowledged? And is it 
said (hat tlie situation (if Greece ajipruachcs more nearly to indepen- 
dence than that of Spain, when Dun Onis came here as her minister? 
..x^ir, let these Greeks send a minister to us, anif'then we will delibe- 
rate on the question, whether we will accndithim or not. If.indeed, 
there was a minister of (ireece knocking at the door of the Presi- 
dent's anti chamber for admittance, and that admittance was denied, 
the question of Grecian independence would be more legitimately 
beflue us; but I greatly doubt, if even that case would be sufficient 
N. to call for t!ie interference of this House. ^' 

But, Mr. R. sai<l, there was one aspect of this ijuestion which, to 
him it appeared, ought to be conclusive on the minds of all, viz.: that 
Russia, whose (lesigns on Turkey have been unremittingly prosecut- 
ed, ever since the (lays of Peter the Great, f(»r more than a century; 
that Ruftsia, allied to the Greeks in religious faith — indentified in 
tliat respect — that Russia, unassailable territorially, and dividing- 
with us (according to the gentleman from Massachusetts) the dread 
and apjirehension of the Allied Powers — even Russia, in "juxtapo- 
sition" (to use the words of the mover of the resolution) with Tur- 
key — even Russia dare not move. But ^ve, who are separated first 
by the Atlantic Ocean, and then have (a traverse the whole length of 
the Mediterranean sea, to arrive at the seat >f conflict — we, at the 
distance of five thousand miles, are to interft;re in this quarrel — to 
■what purpose? To the advantage solely of this very colossal power, 
which has been held up as the great object of our dread, and of whom 
it is difficult to say, whether it is more to be dreaded for its physical 
force, or its detestable principles. 

Permit me, sir, to ask why, in the selection of an enemy to the 
doctrines of our Government, and a party to those advanced by the 
Holy Alliance, we should fix on Turkey? She at least forms no par- 
ty to. that alliance; and I venture to say, that, for the last centuiy, 
her conduct, in reference to her neighbors, has been much more 
Christian than that of all the " Most Christian." " M<»st Catholic," 
or "Most Faithful," Majesties of Kurope — for she has not interfered, 
as we propt^se to do, in the internal affairs of oilier nations. 

But, sir, we have notd<»ne. Not satisfied with attempting to sup-, 
port the Greeks, (me world, like that of Pyrrhus or Alexander, is 
not snfficient for us. We have yet another world for exploits: we 
are to operate in a country distantfrom us SOdegrees of latitude, and 
only accessible by a circumnavigation of the globe, and to sustain 
which, we must cover the Pacific wi^th our ships, and the tops of the 
Andes with o<jr s'ddiers. D5 gentlemen seriously reflect on the work, 
they haye cut out for us? Why, sir, these projects of ambition sur- 
pass those of Bona|)arte himself. 

U hns once been said, of the dominions of the King of Spain — 
thank God! it can no longer be said — that the sun never set upon 
them. Sir, the sun never sets on amb'tiim like this; they wivo have 
orice felt its scorpion sting, are never satisfied with .i limit less than 



11 

the circle of our planet. I have heard, sir, the late corrHsratiori m 
the Heavens aiteiupted to be accounted l\n-, by the returii of the Lu- 
nar Cycle, the luoon haviujii; }i;ot back into the same relative position 
in wiiich siie was nineteen years ago. However this may be, I aui 
afraid, sir, that siie exerts too potent an influence over our legisla- 
tion, or will have done so, if w- agree to adopt the resiiluli(»n on your 
table. I think, about once in seven or eight years, for that seems 
to be the terrn ttf our political cycle, we may calculate upon behold- 
ing some redoubted thampion — like him who prances into Westmin- 
ster Hail, aimed cap a pie, like Sir Somebody Dimock, a< the coro- 
nation of the British King, challenging all who dispute the title to 
the crown — coming into this House, mounted on some magniticenjt 
project, such as this. But, sir, I never ex[)ected, that, of all places 
in the world, (exccj;t Salem) a proposition like this should have come 
from Boston. 

Sir, 1 am afiaid, that, along with some most e\'cellent attributes 
and cjualities — the love of liberty, jury trial, the writ of habeas cor- 
pus, and all the blessings of free government, we have derived 
from our Anglo Saxon ancestors, we have got not a little of their John 
Bull, or rather John Bull Dog spirit — their readiness to fight for any 
body, and on any occasion. Sir, England has been for c> nturics 
the game cock of Europe. It is impossible to specify the wars in 
■which she hfls been engaijed for contrary purposes; and she will with 
great pleasure, see us takeoff her shoulders the labor (>f preserving 
the balance of po'ver. We find her fighting, now, for the Queen of 
Hungary — then for her inveterate foe, the King of Prussia — now at' 
war for the restoration of the Bourbons — an(< now on the eve of war 
with them for the liberties of Spain. These lines on the subject, 
were never more applicable than they have now become: 

'• Now Europe's balanced-^neither side prevails . ' '• 
" For nothing's left in either of the scales." ^^y^ 

If we pursue the same policy, we must travel the same road, and 
endure the same burthens, under which England now groans. But, 
Mr.R. said, glorious as such a design might be, a President of the 
United States would, in his apprehension, occupy a prouder place in 
history, who, when he retires from office, can say to the people who 
elected him, I leave you without a debt, than if he had fought as many 
pitched battles as Caesar, or achieved as many naval victories as 
N^'lson. And what, said Mr. R. is debt.^ In an individual, it is 
slavery. It is slavery of the worst sort, surpassing that of the West 
India Islands, for it enslaves the rnind, as well as it enslaves the 
body; and the creature who can be abjc^*: enough to incur and to 
submit to it, receives in tliat condition of his being perhaps an ade- 
quate punishment. Of course. Mi. K. said, he spoke of debt with 
the exception of unavoidable misfortune. He spoke of debt caused 
by mismanagement, by unwarrantable generosity, by beinsf <:enerous 
bofi.re being just. Mv. R. knew that his sentiment was ridiculed by 
Sheiudax, whose lanieiital)lc end was the best commentary upon its 






*2 

U-uUi. No, sir. Let us abandon these projects. Let us say to tliose 
seven millions of Greeks, "We defended ourselves, when we were 
but three millions, against a power, in comparison with which the Turk 
is but as a lamb. Go and do thou likewise." And, said Mr. R. so 
with respect to the governments of South America. If, after having 
achieved their independence, they have not valor to maintain it, 1 
would not commit the safety and independence of this countrv in 
such a cause. I will, in both these, pursue the same line of conduct 
which I have ever pursued, from the day I took a scat in this House 
in '99, from which, without boastin*, I challenge any gentleman to 
fix upon raeany colorable cha ge of departure. 

The condition of my strength, said Mr, R. or, rather, of my weak- 
ness, admonishes me to conclude; but 1 cannot sit down without 
remarking, that the state of the world is at this moment unexampled. 
We are now carrying on a piratical war against the maritime banditti 
of the West Indies. The bucaniers are revived. At what expense 
of life, of health, of treasure, that war is carried on, perhaps every 
member of this committee knows better than I. — but, sir, to what may 
this resolution lead? To the investing those banditti, and the ban- 
ditti of all the rest of the world, with formal commissions, which the 
maritinie courts of every country in Europe would be bound to res- 
pect — and said Mr. R. I should not be surprised if some of the rene- 
gadoes, whom we have admitted to the privileges of citizens, or the yet 
more spurious oftspring of our own soil, should take those com- 
missions to cruize against our commerce That such coaduct would 
not be without example, the records of our courts will shew. 

It is not, then, the mere power of Turkey which you are to encoun- 
ter, supposing that you stop short with the oiiginal resolution. But 
you do not — ^you go further — out of the frying pan into the fire — the 
amendment of the gentleman from vSouth Carolina, and the proposi- 
tion of the gentleman from Kentucky, go still further — by adopting 
which, you will put the peace of the nation into peril — and for whom? 
For a people of whom we know almost as little as we do about the 
Greeks. Can any man in this House, say, what even is the state of 
society in Buenos Ayres, its moral condition, &c. 

Let us, said Mr. R. adhere to the policy laid down by the second as 
well as the'first founder of our republic— by him wh» was the Camillus, 
as well as Romulus, of the infant state — to the policy of peace, com- 
merce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances 
with none; for to entan";ling alliances we must come, if you once em- 
bark in policy such as this. And, with all his British predilections, 
Mr. R. said, he suspecteii he should, whenever that question should 
present itself, resist as strongly an alliance with Great Britain, as 
with any other power. We are sent here, said he, to attend to the 
preservation of the peace o{ Ihis country, and not to be ready, on all 
occasions, to go to war whenever any thing like what, in common 
parlance, is termed a turn up takes place in Europe. 

These, sir, said Mr. R. are some of the views which I have taken 
pf the subject. There are other views of it which I might take, but 



<-j^^t,^\rJ . J' 



13 

from which I abstain, (I may be permitted to say) out of self respect, 
as well as from respect tor this Committee. 

I can, however, assure the Committee, for one, that the public bur- 
«lens on those whom 1 represent here (tliough they are certainly bet- 
ter olFthan those to the north and the west of them; that is, till you 
come to the favored states, where the interest of the public debt is 
paid, and where almost all the public moneys are disbursed] — their 
burdens, sir, are as great as they can bear, because their private en- 
gagements are greater than they can discharge — and, if this be not 
a self-evident proposition, I am at a loss to know what can be such. 
And this universal distress in the country has been the eifect of 
freaks of legislation. I do not deny but there may be some who 
have drawn great prizes in the lottery but that is not the case with 
the great mass of the nation. And what is this scheme but a lottery? 
If it should end in war, there will be more great prizes to be drawn, 
but it will be forme and those whom I represent, to pay them. 1 have 
been acquainted with my constituents a long time, to little purpose, 
and have greatly mistakeji their disposition and present temper 
of mind, if they are in any such " melting mood." The freaks of 
legislation to which I have referred, the vast expenditures which be- 
got the necessities for over-issues of paper money — that system, com- 
pared with which all the evils of Pandora's box are blessings — have 
brought both England and America to this distress. The two cases 
are strictly parallel — they run on all fours — and, if this resolution 
be adopted, not merely similar, but yet more disastrous consequences 
will ensue. 

I shall then, said Mr. R. return to my constituents without the 
least alarm in regard to this question. Unless, indeed, I and those 
who in this case think with me, have reason to fear that our consti- 
tuents will award us merited censure for not having better supported 
the cause we advocate. Unless on this account, I cherish not the 
least doubt that when I, for one, go back to those who sent me here, 
I shall be greeted with their honest open countenances, and gratu- 
lating hands. There has not been a question, since I have been a 
member of this House, on which my opinion has been more clear than 
on this — no, not even in the case of the sedition law. 

What, said Mr. R. is (»ur situation? We are abs(>lutely combat- 
ting shadows. The gentleman would have us to believe his resolution 
is all but nothing — yet again it is to prove omnipotent, and fill 
the whole globe with its influence. Either it is nothiii"-, or it is 
something. If it be nothing, let it return to its original nothingness, 
let us lay it on the table, and have done with it at once; but, if it is 
that something which it has been, on the other hand, represented to 
be, let us beware how we touch it. For my part, I wduUl sooner 
put the shirt of Nessus on my back, than sanction these doctrines — 
doctrines such as I never heard from my boyhood till now^ l b«^y go 
the whole length. If they prevail, there are no longer any Pyrenees 
— every bulwark and barrier of the Constitution is broken down; it 
is beconie tabula rasa, a carte blanche, for every one to scribble on it 
what he pleases. 



SPEECH 



OF 



MLIEg IB;.^I'T2)©lil^:fI» 



OS 



4 

BELITEEKD IX TUB HOUSE OF HEPRESENTATIVES UWITED STATES, 

January 31, 1824. 



Mr. RANDOLPH, of Virginia, rose. He began by saying, that 
he very much frarod, that the indulgence extended to hitn by the 
Coniimttec, a few days since, might induce them to think that he was, 
thereby, emboldened to throw himself upon their attention more fre- 
quently than was seemly or befitting, and that he should, on too many 
occasions, otter to their consideration the crude conceptictns of his 
very feeble understanding. But, said he, I can, with the utmost 
sincerity, assure the Committee, that they may lay aside all alarm 
on that subject; for, I do not foresee, at this time, any further occa- 
sion, at the present session, when it will be necessary for me to tres- 
pass on their attention. I shall not again, unless some very unex- 
pected case should arise, arouse in their breasts the feeling which 
such a trespass is well calculated to inspire. 

During a not very short course of public life, Mr. Randolph said, 
he did not know that it ever had been his fortune to rise under as 
much embarrassment, or to address the House with as much rcT 
pugnance, as he now felt. That n-pugnance, in part; grew out of 
I'rie necessity that existed for his taking some notice, in the course of 
his observations, of the argument, if argument it might be called, of 
an honorable inember of this House, from Kentucky. And, allhough, 
said Mr. Kamlolph, I have not the honor to know, personally, or even 
by name, a largi' portion of the members of this House, it is not ne- 
cessary for me to indicate the cause of that repusrnance. But this I 
)nav venture to promise the Committee, that, in my notice of ihe ar- 
gument of that member, I shall shew, at least, as much deference te 
it, as he shewed to the Message of the President of the United States 
of A'ncrica, on returning a bill of a nature analogous to that now 
before us — I say at least us much — I should regret if not more. AVith 
the aru;umrnt of the President, however. Mr. Randolph >aid, he had 
uolhiiig to do — li^' washeii his hands ol it — and wuhUI leave it to the 
triumph, the clemency, the mercy, of the honorable gentleman of 



15 

Kentucky — if, indeed, to use his own language, amid the mass oi" 
Winds in vvhich it was envcloned, he had been abie to find \t. His 
purpose, in regard to the arsi;ument of the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky, was, to shew, that it lies in the coujpass «,f a nut-shell — that 
it turns on the meaning of one of the plainest words in the English 
language, lie was happy to be able to a^ree with that gentleman in 
at least one particular, to wit: in the estimate the gentleman iKid 
formed of his own powers as a grammarian, philologer, and critic — 
particularly, as those powers had been displayed in the dissertation 
with wliicl) he had favored the Committee, on the interpretation of 
the word esiabllsh. 

" Congress," says the Conftitution, " shall have power to establish 
[ergo, says the gentleman, Congress shall have power to construct J']. 
Post Roads." 

One would suppose, said Mr. Randolph, that, if any thing could be 
considered as setlletl, by precedent in legislation, the meaning 
ef the w(!rds of the Constitution must, before this time, have been 
settled, by the uniform sense in which that power has been exercised, 
from the commencement of the Government to the present time.. 
What is the fact? Your statute book is loaded with acts for the " es- 
tablishment" of iwst roads — and the Postmaster General is besieged 
with petitions, tor the " establishment" of Post Offices. And yet, 
we are now gravely debating on what the word " establish" shall be 
held to mean! A curious predicament we are placed in — precisely 
the reverse of that of Moliere's citizen turne<l gentleman, who dis- 
covered, to his great surprize, that he had been talking " prose" all 
his life long, without knowing it — a couiinon case—it is just so with 
all prosers, and I hope I may not exemplify it in this instance. But, 
sir, we have been, for five-and-thirty years, establishing post-roads, 
under the delusion that we were exercising a power specially con- 
ferred upon us by the constitution, while we were, according to the 
suggpsti(»n of the gentleman from Kentucky, actually committing 
treason, Uy refusing, for so long a time, to carry into effect that very 
article of the Constitution! 

To forbear the exercise of a power vested in us forthe publicgood, 
not merely for our own aggrandizement, is, according to the argu- 
ment of the gentleman from Kentucky, treachery to the Constitu- 
tion! I, then, said Mr. Randolph, must have commenced my public 
life in treason, and in treason am I doomed to end it. One of the 
first votes that I ever had the honor to give, in this House, was a 
rote against the establishment, if gentlemen please, of a uniform sys- 
tem of bankruptcy — a power as unquestionably given to Congress, by 
the Constitution, as the power to lay a direct tax. But, sir, my trea- 
son did not end there. About two years after the establishment of 
this uniform system of bankruptcy, I was particeps criminis, with al- 
most the unanimous voice of this House, in committing another act 
of tieachery in repealing it; and Mr. Jefferson, the President of the 
United States, in tl)e commencement of his career, consununated th,e 
treason by putting his signature to the act of repeal. ■ 




lb 

Miserable, itnlectl, would he the condition of every free people, if, 
in expounding the charter of their liberties, it were necesH;iry to go 
back to the Anglo-Saxon, to Junius and Skinner, and other black 
letter etymologists. Not, sir, that I am very skilful in language: 
althougli I have learned from a certain Curate of Brentford, whose 
n.iine will survive when the whole contemporanei»us bench of Bishops 
shall be buried in oblivion, that tvords — the counters of wise men, 
the money of f lols — that it is by the dextrous cutting, and shufiling 
of this pack, that is derivecl one-half of the chicanery, and more than 
one-half of tl>e profits, of the most lucrative profession in the world — 
and, sir, by this dextrous exchanging, and substituting of words, we 
shall not be the first nation in the world which has been cajtded, if 
we are to be cajoled, out of our rights and liberties. 

Ill the course of the observations which the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky saw fit to submit to the Committee, were some pathetic ejacu- 
lations on the subject of the sufferings of our brethren of the West. 
Sir, our brethren of the West have suffered, as our brethren through- 
out the United States, from the same cause, although wiih th.;m the 
cause exists in an aggravated degree — from the acts of those to whom 
they have cotifidtMl the power of legislation; by a departure — and we 
hav<; all suffei-ed f-om it — I hope no gentleman will understand me, 
as wishing to make any invidious comparisons between different 
quarters of our country — by a cleparture from the industry, the sim- 
plicity, the economy„and the frugality, of our ancestors. They have 
suffered from a greediness of gain, that has grasped at the shadow 
while it has lost the substance — from habits of indolence, of profu- 
sion, of extravagance — from an apery of foreign manners, and of fo- 
reign fashions — from a miserable attempt at the shabby genteel, which 
only serves to make our poverty more conspicuous. The way to 
remedy this state of suffering, is, to return to those habits of labor» 
and industry, from which we have thus departed. 

But, said Mr. II. we have been asked, if, by some convulsion of na- 
ture, this Government should be suddenly destroyed, and should pass 
away, "likethebaselessiabricof a virion, and leave not a rack behind," 
what monument would remain of the benefits derived from it in the 
West — in other words, what have we done for the West.'' Sir, let 
me reverse the question. What have we not done for the West.'' Do 
gentlemen want monuments? Unless the art of printing should be 
lost, posterity may find them in your statute books, and in the jour- 
nals of this House. They may find them in Indian treaties for 
the extinguishment of title to lands — in grants of land, the effects of 
which begin now to be felt in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as 
they have long been severely felt iii Maryland, Carolina, and Virgi- 
nia: they will fintl them in laws granting every facility for the nomi- 
nal payment — and, he might uhnost say, for the spunging, of the 
debts due this Government, by purchasers of the public lands — in 
the grants, which cannot be found in the, older states, for the estab- 
lishment of schools, and for other great objects of public concern- 
ment, for which nothing has been given to the states of the East. In 



17 

a word, they would find them in the millions which this nation has 
disbursed, and is now disbursing, for the acquisition of the naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, and for the purchase of Louisiana. If these 
be notiiing, said Mr. R. then indeed we have done nothing for the 
West. It is true, sir, that these things were done when the names 
of more than one who now figure on this floor, had not been heard of 
out of their own parish. In a word, without speaking this in any in- 
vidious spirit: without the remotest intention of twitting our VVest- 
ern brethren with what we have done for them, I have stated some 
of the benefits conferred on the West, for the purpose of repressing 
the spirit of discontent, which, beginning at home, never fails to lay 
hold upon any external object with which it meets as an excuse for 
complaining. I will not add, Mr. Chairman — from Washingt(m to 
Milledgeville — for this part of the country, what has been done.^ 

With these few remarks, continued Mr. R. permit me now to re- 
cal the attention of the committee to the original design of this Go- 
vernment. It grew out of the necessity, indispensable and unavoid- 
able, in the circum.stances of this country, of some general power, 
capable of regulating foreign commerce. Sir, I am old enough to re- 
meml)er the origin of this Government; and, though 1 was too young 
to participate in the transactions of that day, I iiave a perfect recol- 
lection of what was public sentiment on the subject. And I repeat, 
without fear of contradiction, that the proximate, as well as the re- 
mote cause of the existence of the Federal Government, was, the re- 
gulation of foreign commerce. Not to particularize all the difficul- 
ties which grew out of the conflicting laws of the states, Mr. R. re- 
ferred to but one, arisintr from Virginia taxing an article which Ma- 
ryland then made duty-free: and to that very policy, said he, may be 
attributed, in a great degree, the rapid growth and prosperity of the 
town of Baltimore. If the old Congress had possessed the power of 
laying a duty often per cent, ad valorem on imports, this constitu- 
tion would never have been called into existence. 

But we are told that, along with the regulation of foreign com- 
merce, the states have yielded to the General Government, in as 
broad terms, the regulation of domestic commerce — I mean, said Mr. 
R. the couimerce among the several states — and that the same pow- 
er is possessed by Congress over the one as over the other. It is ra- 
ther unfortunate for this argument, that, if it applies to the extent to 
which the power to regulate foreign commerc e has been carried by 
Congress, they may prohibit, altogether, this domestic commerce, a3 
they have heretofore, under the other power, prohibited foreign com- 
merce. 

But why put extreme cases? This Government cannot go on one 
day with(»ut a mutual understanding and deference between the 
State and General Governments. This Government is the breath of 
the nostrils of the states. Gentlemen may say what they please of 
the preamble to the constitution; but this constitution is not the work 
of the atnaigamated population of the then existing confederacy, but 
the offspring of the states; and however high we may carry our heads, 

3 



i8 

and strut and fret our hour, "dressed in a little brief authority," it is 
in the power of the states to extinguish this Government at a blow. 
They have only to refuse to send members to the other branch of the 
Legislature, or to appoint Electors of President and Vice President, 
and the thing is done. I hope gentlemen will not understand me as 
seeking for reflections of this kind — but, like Falstaff's rebellion — I 
mean Worcester's rebellion, they lay in my way, and I found tliera. 
But, we are asked, what if little Delaware should erect her back, 
or New Jersey, and should undertake to stop the transportation of 
the United states' mail? It would be something very like the at- 
tempt virtually made by another state, during the late war, or an at- 
tempt to stop the transit of the U. S. troops through the territory of 
a state. And this brings me to another branch of the subject, on 
which, in my discursive way, I mean to touch. I recollect once to 
have heard, from a gentleman from Kentucky, the power to re-char- 
ter the old Bank of the United States, called a " vagrant power," 
seeking through the different clauses of the constitution where to fix 
itself; but, like a man in Kentucky seeking for his land, found the 
ground shingled over with warrants. Now, said Mr. R. this vagrant 
power (of making roads and canals) after being whipt from parish to 
parish, is, at last, seeking a settlement under the war-making power. 
And under this power to make war, sir, what may we not do? Quar- 
ter troops upon you — burn your house, sir, or mine — burn your own 
ships, and your navy yards, that the enemy may not have the plea- 
sure of doing it. But would any man contend that, in time of peace, 
all the incidents to the war-making power take effect? I have al- 
ways understood, said Mr. R. that inter arma silent leges — aiid a man 
might as well bring an action against the hero of New Orleans — 
yes, sir, the hero of New Orleans, if I may call him so — by an ac- 
tion of trespass quare cluusum /regit, when he marched dowi to the 
beach, and gave the enemy a foretaste of what he gave them thereaf- 
ter — a man might as well do that, as, in time of peace, sustain the 
power of the same hero — not, sir, that 1 impute the assumption of it to 
him — of doing all the things which he might rightfully do in a time of 
war. When, Mr. R. said, he considered this war-making power, and 
the money -raising power, and suffered himself to reflect on 
the length to which they go, he felt ready to acknowledtre that, in 
yielding these, the states have yifldetl every thing. The last words 
of Patrick Henry on this subject, though uttered five and twenty 
years ago. were now ringing in his ears. If gentlemen will come 
fairly out, said Mr. R. and tell us, You have given us the power of 
the purse and of the sword, and these two enable us to take whatever 
else we may want, we shall understand them. Thank God, howe- 
ver, //to/ has not yet become the construction of the constitution. 

I am sorry to say, because I should be the last man in the world to 
disturb the repose of a venerable man, to whom I wish a quiet end of 
his honorable life — that all the difliculties under which we have la- 
bored, and now labor, on this subject, have grown out of a fatal ad- 
mission, by one of the late Presidents of the United States — an ad- 



19 

mission which runs, counter to the tenor of his whole political life, 
and is expressly contradicted by one of the most luminous and able 
state papers that ever was written, the ofFsprinu; of his pen — an ad- 
mission which gave a sanctien to the principle, that this Government 
had the power to charter, the present colossal Bank of the United 
States. Sir, said Mr. R. that act, and one other, which I will not 
name, bring forcibly home to my mind a train of melancholy reflec- 
tions on the miserable state of our mortal being. 

" In life's last scenes, what prodigies surprise! 

" Fears of the brave, and follies oftlie wise. 

" From Marlboroug'h's eyes, the streams of dotage flow; 

" And Swift expires a driv'ler and a show." 

Such is the state of the case, Sir. It is miserable to think of it— ■ 
and we have nothing left to us but to weep over it. 

We have been told, sir, by my friend from New Jersey, over the 
way, that the framers of the constitution foresaw the raising up of 
some new sects, which were to construe the powers of the govern- 
ment differently from their intention; and, therefore, the clause 
granting a general power to make all laws that might be necessary 
and proper to carry the granted powers into effect, was inserted in 
that Constitution. Yes, said Mr. R. such a sect did arise some twen- 
ty odd years ago— -and, unfortunately, I had the honor to be a mem- 
ber of that church. From the commencement of the government to 
this day, differences have arisen between the two great parties in 
this nation — one consistingof the disciples of Mr. Hamilton, the Se- 
cretary of the Treasury, and another party who believed that, in their 
construction of the constitution, those to whom they opposed them- 
selves exceeded the just limit of its legitimate authority — and Mr. 
R. prayed gentlemen to take into tlieir most serious consideration 
the fact, that, on this very question of construction, this sect, which 
the framers of the constitution foresaw might arise, did arise in their 
might, and put down the construction of the constitution according 
to the Hamiltonian version. But did we at that day dream, said Mr. 
R. that a new sect would arise after them, which would as far tran- 
scend Alexander Hamilton and his disciples, as they out-went Tho- 
mas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Taylor, of Caroline.^ This 
is the deplorable fact: such is now the actual state of things in this 
land; and it is not a subject so much of demonstration as it is self- 
evident — it speaks to the senses, so that every one may understand 
it. On the occasion of that great strife, Mr. Jefferson, then Vice 
President of the United States, drew, and sent to Kentucky, to be 
moved by the eminent and worthy man who was afterwards his At- 
torney General, those celebrated resolutions, generally called the 
Kentucky Resolutions. These were followed by another set of reso- 
lutions, which were called John Taylor^s Resolutions, but which we 
now, by the public declaration of Mr. Taylor, under his own hand, 
know were drawn up by Mr. Madison. 'I'hese gave rise to that very 
able and masterly Report of the Massachusetts General Court, sus- 



20 

taining; the constitutionaltiy of the Alien and Sedition Laws. Yes, 
sir, it was a very able report — and here permit nie to say 1 have not 
heard a shadow of an argument on this floor — and I do not expect 
to hear it, because it is unsusceptible of it — as forcible, as strong, in 
support of the power nt>w claimed for this House, as is the argument 
of the Legislature of Massachusetts in support of the Alien and Se- 
dition Laws — and I say that if you can enact tliis bill, you can re- 
enact the Alien and Sedition Laws — not, sir, that I am at all afraid 
of their re-enactment now — they who burnt their fingers with the Se- 
dition Law have learnt lessons from experience, and so have those 
who havf^ had their example before their eyes. For, we learn from 
high authority here, that, notwithstanding the representations of 
" venal and hireling presses" to the contrary, the country is in great 
distress — by which we are to understand, that means have been tak- 
en to use the press here, like the bayonet beyond the water, for the 
support of legitimate authority. No sir, I am not afraid of the enact- 
mentof tiie Sedition Law; there is now no occasion to defend ourselves 
by such a measure, against the idle bark of every unnecessary cur 
in the Republic. But, Mr. R. said, he recollected when this vagrant 
power was first detected by this new sect, like an insect feeling for 
the soft and pulpy parts of the body politic, &c. 

I remember to have heard it said, elsewhere, said Mr. R. that 
*' when gentlemen talked of precedent, they forgot they were not in 
Westminster Hall." Whatever trespass, said he, I may be guilty of 
upon the attention of the Committee, one thing I will promise them, 
and will faithfully perform my promise — I will dole out to them no 
political metaphysics. Sir, I unlearned metaphysics almost as early 
as Fontenelle, and he tells us, I think, it was at nine years old. I 
shall say nothing about that word municipal. I am almost as sick of 
it as honest Jack FalstafF was of " security" — it has been like rats- 
bane in mv mouth, ever since the late Ruler of France took shelter 
under that word, to pocket our money, and incarcerate our persons, 
with the most profound respect for our neutral rights. I have done 
with the word municipal ever since that day. Let us come to the 
plain common-sense construction of the Constitution. Sir, we live 
under a government of a peculiar structure, to which the doctrines 
of the European writers on civil polity do not apply — and when gen- 
tlemen •'■etuo and quote Vattel, as applicable to the powers of the Con- 
gress of the United States, I should as soon have expected them to 
quote Aristotle or the Koran. Our government is not like the con- 
solidated monarchies of the old world — it is a solar system, an im- 
perium in imnerio: and, when the question is about the one or the 
other, what belongs to the imperium and what to the imperio, we gain 
nothin"- by referring to Vattel. He treats of an integral government, 
a compact structure — totus teres atque rotxmdics. But ours is a sys- 
tem composed of two distinct governments — the one general in its 
nature, the other internal. Now, sir, a government may be admira- 
ble for external, and yet execrable for internal purposes. And when 
the question of power in the government arises, this is the problem 



21 

which every honest man has to work. The powfrs of government 
are divided, in our system, between the general and state govern- 
ments, except some powers, which the People have very wisely re- 
tained to themselves. With these exceptions, all the power is di- 
vided between the two governments. The given power will not lie, 
unless, as in the case of direct taxes, the power is specifically given — 
and even then, the states have a concurrent power. The question 
for every honest man to ask himself, is, to which of these two divi- 
sions of government does the power in contest belong. And, 
said Mr. R. while I am on the subject of assumed power, permit me 
to say, that, if my strength allows me, I shall be compelled to state 
iome acts of assumption and usurpation on the part of the states, as 
well as on the part of the general government: not that I at all agree 
with the gentleman from New-York, (Mr. Storrs,) that the danger of 
this government is from the state governments — nor can I imitate, 
while I greatly admire the generosity with which that gentleman, a re- 
presentative from the largest state in the Union, would shear her of her 
strength — to do what? To preserve this union.'' No. To reduce her to 
a level, by possibility, with the smallest state in the Union. And this, 
sir, reminds me of one other of the nothings we have done for the Wes- 
tern Country. We have, among other nothings, given them, in case of 
an election of President coming into this House, nine votes out of 
twenty-four. We have erected them, as soon as their numbers would 
render it possible, under the law, into independent states, and thus 
given them, in the other branch of the legislature, a voice to weigh 
down the voice, or counteipoise it, of New York or Pennsylvania. 
These are among the nothings we have done for them. This, then, 
is the problem we have to settle: Does this power of internal im- 
provement belong to the general or to the state governments, or is it a 
concurrent power.'* Gentlemen say we have power, by the Consti- 
tution, to establish post roads, and, having established post roads, we 
should be much obliged to you to allow us, therefore, the power to 
construct the roads and canals into the bargain. If I had the physi- 
cal strength, said Mr. R. I could easily demonstrate to the Com- 
mittee, that, supposing the po-wer to exist on our part — -of all the 
powers that can be exercised by this House, there is no power that 
would be more susceptible of abuse than this very power. Fit^ure to 
yourself, said he, a committee of this House determining on some 
road, and giving out the contracts to the members of both Houses of 
Congress, or to thpir friends, &c. Sir, if I had strength, I could' 
shew to this committee that the Asiatic plunder of Leadenhall street 
has not been more corrupting to the British government than the exer- 
cise of such a power as this would prove to us. 

The gentleman from New York, (Mr. Storrs) says that Congress 
possesses the power to coin money, anrl asks if that does not involve 
a jurisdiction over the whole subject of money. It does, sir; and yet 
1 would, by the bye, correct one mistake into which that gentleman 
alone has not fallen. In what does that power consist."^ In designa- 
ting the metal, determining the rate of alloy, fixing the weight, di- 



"^'^ 22 

rectin^ the impress, and declarlns; the value of the coin — not in the 
mechanical act of coining. And if all our coin were struck by Watt 
& Bolton at Birmingham, the coinage would be as much an act of 
sovereignty, if it had due weight and the proper assay, &c. as if 
it were coined at the mint in Philadelphia. But, sir, under this pow- 
er, what have we done.? We have erected a bank, wliich will not 
redeem the notes of its branches, and the states are deluged with 
spurious bank paper, while with this base currency' throughout the 
land, debtors are bound to pay in specie. Sir, the bank-note-table 
of New York, in which they do not deign to name the banks of Ken- 
tucky, is a politico-economical curiosity; and, instead of one curren 
cy of uniform value, we have a thousand dilierent kinds of base nf»o- 
ney, by ringing the changes upon which, wo hear the profits which 
brokers and shavers and stock jobbe s levy on the honest industr}' of 
the nation. I said, continued Mr. R. that this government, if put 
to the test — a test it is by no m^^ans calculated to endure — as a go- 
vernment for the management of the internal concerns of this coun 
try, is one of the worst that can be conceived — which is determined 
by the fact, that it is a govei nment not having a common feeling and 
common int<-rest with the governed. I know said he, that we are 
told — and it is the first time that the doctrine has been openly avow- 
ed — that, upon the responsibility of this House to the People, by 
means of the elective franchise, depends all the security of the People 
of the United States against theabuse of the powers of this government. 
But, sir, how shall a man from Mackinaw or the Yellow Stone River, 
respond to the sentiments of the people who live in New Hampshire.'^ 
It is as great a mockery — a greater mockery than it was to talk to these 
colonies about their virtual representation in the British Parliament. 
I have no hesitation in saying that the liberties of the Colonies were 
safer in the custody of the British Parliament than they will be in 
any portion of this country, if all the powers of the States, as well 
as those of the General Government, are devolved on this House; 
and in this opinion I am borne out, and more than borne out, by the 
authority of Patrick Henry himself. 

But the gentleman from New York, and some others who have spo- 
ken on this occasion, say, What! sliall vve be startled by a shadow? 
Shall we recoil from taking a power clearly within — (what.'^) — our 
reach.? Shall we not clutch the sceptre — the air-drawn sceptre, that 
invites our hand, because of the fears and alarms of the gentlemen 
from Virginia.? Sir, if I cannot give reason to the committee, they 
shall at least have authority. Thomas Jefferson, then in the vig- 
or of his intellect, was one of the persons who denied the existance 
of such powers. James Madison was another. He, in that master- 
ly and unrivalled report in the Legislature of Virginia, which is 
worthy to he the text book of every American Statesman, has set- 
tled this question. For me to att^^mpt to add any thing to the argu- 
ments of that paper, would be to attempt to gild refined gold — to 
paint the lilly — to throw a perfume on the violet — to smooth the ice 
or add another hue unto the rainbow — in every aspect of it. waste- 



23 

fill and ridiculous excess. Neither will I hold up my farthing rush- 
light to the blaze of that meridian sun. But sir, I cannot but de- 
plore, and to my dying day I shall deplore — my heart aches when I 
think of it— that the hand which erected that monument of political 
wisdom should have signed the act to incorporate the present Bank 
of the United States. 

It was not a matter of conjecture, merely, Mr, R. said, but of 
fact — of notoriety, that there does exist on this subject an honest 
difference of opinion among enlightened men; that not one or two, 
but many states in the Union see with great concern and alarm the 
encroachments of the General Government on their authority. They 
feel that they have given up the power of the purse and the sword, 
and enabled men, with the purse in one hand and the sword in the 
other, to rifle them of all that they hold dear. Among the reveries of 
that strange and most extraordinary man, the late rukr of France, 
while he was dying, inch by inch, among the rats of St. Helena, he 
expressed the thought, that, if instead of Elba, he had chosen Corsi- 
ca as the place of his retreat, when he was driven by the Allies out 
of France, he would have been enabled, from the bravery and devo- 
tion of the people, and the mountainous passes of the country, &c. to 
hold it against the combined powers of Europe — as if a man who 
could not keep France, could keep any thing else. And we too, sir, 
now begin to perceive what we have surrendered — that, having given 
up the power of the purse and the sword, every thing else is at the 
mercy and forbearance of the General Government. We did believe 
there were some parchment barriers — no! what is worth all the 
parchment barriers in the world — that there was, in the powers of 
the States, some counterpoise to the power of this body: but, if this 
bill passes, we can believe so no longer. 

I have mentioned Bonaparte — and, perhaps history cannot afford 
another example of such a rise, and of such a fail. We see him giv- 
ing law in the Kremlin, in the ancient palace of the Muscovite Czars — 
in three years we see him in the island of St. Helena, enduring — -I 
will not say what. With that example of humiliation before me, it 
costs me nothing to endure the triumph of the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania, (Mr. Hemphill,) who tells us that a new era is approach- 
ing — (not the era of good feeling, I am afraid, for that has come al- 
ready,) — in which all Presidential squeamishness is to be at an end — 
when this Government shall enter on a new course, and we are to 
take a new latitude and departure. With this example before me, 
I must recall the recollection of three-and-twenty years ago, when 
that gentleman, who is the father of the present bill, was upholding, 
or, rather, endeavoring to uphold, the wreck and remnant of that 
system of poHcy which its triumphant adversaries had cloven down. 
I remember his exertions in regard to what has been called the mid- 
night Judiciary. Sir, at that time, I stood, in relation to this House, 
and to that gentleman, in a station very different from that which 1 
now sustain, or ever expect — or, if I know myself, would ever wish, 
to occupy again. If that era arrives, to which the hopes, and wishes 



% 



24 

of the gcntleinaii seem to aspire, it is a pity we have nat some Dry- 
den to celebrate its advent. Another Astrxa redux will be hailed — 
and we shall once more listen to the strain, 

" Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna." 

Sir, if this bill passes, we shall not only have a midnight, but a 
day-light, and star-light, judiciary bill. You will have what one of— 
I was goin^ to say, (I must not call him so, but I will — I know not 
what else io<,h\\ him,) the most violent Federalist I ever heard, once 
said, we ought to have — federal justices of the peace. For, you are 
told, that all the power that is claimed for Congress over roads, is a 
conservative power — that if robberies, (except of the mail,) ur mur- 
ders, are committed, or contracts are made on a road belonging to 
the United States, they will fall under the cogni'/.ance, and jurisdic- 
tion, of the State Government. Sir, I am no lawyer; but this is the 
first time that I ever heard, that the effect of contracts was limited to the 
place of signature. I always have heard that they were, in their na- 
ture, transitive. But, sir, suppose the power to be conservative on- 
1}^ — and suppose some breach is made in the road, or any other in- 
jury done to it, are you not to punish that injury.^ And, if any thing 
of a trespass is comuiitted on this road, are you to haul a man all the 
way from the extreme verge of the largest states in the Union — for 
he must be tried in the Federal Court, and not in a court of the state — 
to answer for having thrown a pebble in the road? and then, if ag- 
grieved by the decision of the court, is he to be left to the remedy of 
coming here, to the Supreme Court, for his appeal.^ 

But, sir, it is said we have a right to establish post offices and post 
roads, and we have a right to regulate commerce between the seve- 
ral states: and it is argued that "to regulate" commerce, is to pre- 
scribe the way in which it shall be carried on — which gives, by a 
/t6cra/ construction, the power to construct the way, that is, the roads 
and canals on which it is to be carried! Sir, since the days of that 
unfortunate man, of the German coast, whose name was originally 
Fyerstein, Anglicised to Firestone, but got, by translation, from that 
to Flint, from Flint to Pierre-a-Fusil, and from Pierre-a-Fusil to 
Peter Gun — never was L-reater violence done the finjjlifth language, 
than by the construction, that, under the power to prescribe the way 
in which commerce shall be carried on, we have the right to construct 
the way on which it is to be carried. Are gentlemen aware of the 
colossal power they are giving to the General Government.'' Sir, I 
am afraid, that that ingenious gentleman, Mr. McAdam, will have 
to give up his title to the distinction of the Colomvi of Roads, and 
surrender it to some of the gentlemen of this committee, if they suc- 
ceed in their efforts on this occasion. If, ifideed, we have the pow- 
er which is contended for by gentlemen under that clause of the con- 
stitution which relates to the re;;ulati(»n of commerce among the se- 
veral states, we may, under the same power, prohibit, altogether, the 
commerce between the states, or any portion of the states — or we 



25 

may declare that it shall be carried on only in a particular way, by 
a particular road, or through a particular canal; or we may say 
to the people of a particular district, you shall only carry your 
produce to market through our canals, or over our roads, and 
then, by tolls, imposed upon them, we may acquire power to ex- 
tend the same blessings, and privileges, to other districts of the coun- 
try. Nay, we may go further. \Ve may take it into our heads- 
Have we not the power to provide and maintain a navy ? What is 
more necessaiy to a navy than seamen to man it.^ And the great 
nursery of our seamen is (^besides fisheries) the coasting trade — we 
may take it into our heads, that those monstrous lumberin-K wagons 
that now traverse the country between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, 
stand in the way of the raising of seamen, and may declare that no 
communication shall be held between these points but coastwise: we 
may specify some particular article in which alone trade shall be 
carried on. And, sir, if, contrary to all expectation, the ascendency 
of Virginia, in the general government, should again be established, 
it may be declared that coal shall be carried in no other way than 
coastwise, &c. Sir, there is no end to the purposes that may be ef- 
fected under such constructions of power. I here beg of gentlemen 
to recollect — I particularly call upon the very few members of this 
House, who happen to be interested in the navigation of the River on 
which I reside, (the Roanoke,) to say, whether, after we have, with 
many efforts and a great expense, with the loss of at least half of our 
capital, effected the navigation of that river, it would be competent 
to this government to seize upon our feeders, to assume jurisdiction 
of Lake Drummond, &c. and, for the accomplishment of some wild 
scheme — not more preposterous and ridiculous than some others I 
could name — drain the waters of that Lake into the Atlantic ocean, 
and abolish our canal. If we should chance to encounter the dis- 
pleasure of the government, under these constructions of power, they 
may say to every wagoner in North Carolina, you shall not carry on 
any commerce across the Virginia line, in wagons or carts, because 
I have some other object to answer, by a suppression of that trade. 
Are gentlemen prepared for this ? 

There is one othtr power, said Mr. R. which may be exercised, in 
case the power now contended for be conceded, to which I ask the 
attention of every gentleman who happens to stand in the same un- 
fortunate predicament with myself — of every man who has the mis- 
fortune to be, and to have been born, a slave holder. If Congress 
possess the power to do what is proposed by this bill, they may not 
only enact a sedition law — for there is precedent — but they may 
emancipate every slave in the United States — and with stronger color 
of reason than they can exercise the power now contended for. And 
where will they find the power? They may follow the example of 
the gentlemen who have preceded me, and hook the power upon the 
first loop they find in the constitution: they might take the preamble 
• — perhaps the war making power — or they might take a greater 
sweep, and say, with some gentlemen, that it is not to be found in 
this or that of the granted powers, but result* from all of them — 

4 



r.v. 



26 

vvhich is not only a dangerous, but the most dangerous doctrine. Was 
it not demonstrable, Mr. R. asked, that slave labor is the dearest in 
the world — and that the existence of a large body of slaves is a source 
of danger,'' Suppose we are at war with a foreign power, and free- 
dom should be offered them by Congress as an inducement to them to 
take a part in it — or suppose the country not at war, at every turn of 
this federal machine, at every successive census, that interest will 
find itself governed by another and increasing power, which is bound 
to it, neither by any common tie of interest or feeling. And, if ever the 
time shall arrive, as assuredly it has arrived elsewhere, and, in all 
probability, may arrive here, that a coalition of knavery and fanati- 
cism shall, for any purpose, be got up on thi« iloor, I ask gentlemen, 
A\ho stand in the same predicament as I do, to look well to what they 
are now doing — to the colossal power with which they are now arm- 
ing this government. The power to do what I allude to is, I aver, more 
honestly inferrible from the war-making power, than the power we 
are now about to exercise. Let them look forward to the time when 
such a question shall arise, and tremble with me at the thought that 
that question is to be decided by a majority of the votes of this House, 
of whom not one possesses the slightest tie of common interest or of 
common feeling with us. 

When, on a late occasion, it was proposed to this House to give a 
grant of some ninety pounds, lawful money, to rock the cradle of 
declining age, to smooth the pillow of an ancient gentlewoman, the 
mother of a race of heroes — a race to whom some of us seem to have 
a constitutional and instinctive antipathy — we have been met with a 
cry of danger to the constitution ! of danger to the liberties of the 
country! But, when it is proposed to draw the last shilling from the 
pockets of honest industry, to be laid out, as from the very nature of 
the thing it must be laid out, in jobs, and contracts, and corruption — 
^nd if you will trace the execution of all your projects — the Rip Rap, 
or others, you will find the process is the same in all — you are told 
that in making roads and digging canals, and spending millions upon 
them, you are promoting the honor, and interest, and grandeur of the 
country! And this, Mr. Chairman, for fear tliat the states, which 
are all clamorous, burdening your table with daily petitions, to set 
you to extend your post routes through all the States and Territories, 
should undertake to stop the passage of the United States' mail! Why, 
sir, if we suppose a case like this, we may suppose a universal mad- 
ness seixiii"; on the whole population of the country, and argue from 
that supposition. 

And this brings me, said Mr. R. to notice an admission, as it has 
been called, of my worthy colleague, of the power of altering post 
roads, after they are established. I cannot understand this as gen- 
tlemen appear to do, and I know that my colleague is not correctly 
go understood. Sir, in the state, one of whose representatives 1 am, 
I don't know a single post route that has not been changed from what 
it was when established as a post road by the statute. Why, sir, you 
will not, at this moment, on the mail route from the capital of i\\f- 



27 

United States to the capital of Virginia, travel for the first twenty 
miles on a single inch of 'he road as it existed when that mail route 
was first established. What follows from the doctrine of gentlemen 
on this su'iject? Why, that if Virginia should do what she ought to 
do — make a good road between the two points referred to — the mail 
is yet to continue to go, as now, plunii:;ing through the worse than 
Serbonian bogs, betvveen the Neabsco and Chapawamsic, and we 
shall do it, because it is treason — not by the Constitution of the Unit- 
ed States, t» be sure, but about as pretty a case of constructive trea- 
son, as a latitudinarian judge could desire to see on a summer's day, 
to alter a post road. From the doctrines now advanced on this floor, 
it follows, that every mile that a post route is changed, whether for 
the better or worse, the powers of government are impugned; and 
{nullum tempus occurrit res(i), we do not know what a mass of crimin- 
ality may not have been incurred, and very innocently incurred, be- 
cause never, till now, had our people a preceptor learned enough to 
instruct them in the true meaning of the word " establish." 

After a short pause, Mr. R. said, it was to him a matter of painful 
reflection how utterly inadequate he felt himself to say what he in- 
tended to have said, and still more as he intended to say it. But, 
before I sit down, said Mr. R. permit me to put it to the candor even 
of those Members of this House who differ from me respecting the 
constitutionality of the power now claimed, to say what there is in 
the state of this nation, at this particular juncture, that calls for the 
immediate exercise of this power, supposing it to be possessed. 

The honorable gentleman from Delaware tells us we have power 
to purchase stock, and thus promote objects of internal improvement 
■where they are commenced by the states or by individual enterprise. 
Sir, if we have money to spare, let me advise the gentleman, who is 
chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, to begin with buy- 
ing our own stock. We can do nothing better with our money than 
buy our own bonds. I have known many speculators leave their 
own debts unpaid, to purchase the property of others; but I never 
knew one of them »o come to good. Let us discharge our war debt, 
and no lonj^er put oft' the payment of it by shuflling evasions, under 
pretence of a change of stock. Individuals, not inferior to any in 
the country, and some of the great states too, also entertain serious 
doubts of the power of Congress, to pass this bill. I should wish, 
in the course of future discussion, that some gentleman would show 
the urgency of the occasion to make the plunge at this moment. 
Are there not already causes enough of jealousy and discord exist- 
ing among us? Is this the most auspicious time to set up a new 
construction of the Constitution? Is this the most auspicious time 
for the exercise of the assumption of a power which the gentleman 
from New-York, with his usual perspicacity, so clearly sees we pos- 
sess, but which Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and others 
of at least equal authority with the gentleman from New-York, as 
clearly see we do not possess? Is this a time to increase those jea- 
lousies between different quarters of the country, already sufliciently 
apparent? 



28 

I intended, said Mr. R. to have manag;ed this subject in a different 
manner; but the exhaustion of both bodily and mental powers calls 
on me to do what I ought to have done long ago — to draw these re- 
marks to a close. But it is too late in ihe day for me to speak for 
reputation. Whatever is to be the fate of this bill — whether this 
splendid project shall or shall not go into operation now, or be re- 
served for the new reign, the approach of which is hailed with so 
much pleasure, my place must be either in the obscurity of private 
life, or in the thankless and profitless employment of attempting to 
uphold the rights of the States, and of the People, so long as I can 
stand — more especially the rights of my native State, the land of 
my sires, which, although I be among the least worthy or least fa- 
vored of her sons, and although she may allot to me a step-son's por- 
tion — I will uphold, so hmg as I live. 

Let us, then, I repeat, Mr. Chairman, pay our debts, personal and 
public; let us leave the profits of labor in the pockets of (he people, 
to rid them of that private embarrassment under which they so ex- 
tensively suffer, and apply every shilling of the revenue, not indis- 
pensable to the exigencies of the government, to thp faithful discharge 
of the public debt, before we engage in any new schemes of lavish 
expendiure. Sir, we have already paid more interest on the 3 per cent. 
stock, than the amount of the whole principal of that debt at nominal 
par. 

Should this bill pass, one more measure only requires to be con- 
summated; and then we, who belong to that unfortunate portion of 
this confederacy which is south of Mason and Dixon's line, and east 
of the Alleghany Mountains* have to make up our raind to perish 
like so many mice in a receiver of mephitic gas, under the experi- 
ments of a set of new political chemists; or we must resort to the 
measures, which we first opposed to British aggressions and usurpa- 
tions — to maintain that independence which the valor of our fathers 
acquired, but which is every day sliding from under our feet. I be- 
seech all those gentlemen who come from that portion of the Union, 
to take into serious consideration, whether they are not, by the pas- 
sage of this bill, precipitately, at least without urgent occasion, now- 
arming the General Government with powers hitherto unknown— 
under which we shall become, what the miserable proprietors of Ja- 
maica and Barbadoes are to their English mortgagees, mere stew- 
ards — sentinels — matiagers of slave labor — we ourselves retaining, 
on a footing with the slave of the West Indies, just enough of the 
product of our estates to support life, while all the profits go with 
the course of the Gulf stream. Sir, this is a state of things that can- 
not last. If it shall continue with accumulated pressure, we must 
oppose to it associations, and every other means short of actual in- 
surrection. We must begin to construe the Constitution like those 
who treat it as a bill of indictment, in which they are anxious to pick 
a flaw — we shall keep on the windward side of treason — but we must 
combine to resist, and that effectually, these encroachments, or the 
little upon which we now barely subsist will be taken from us. 
With these observations, Mr. R. abandoned the question to its fate. 



SPEECH OF MR. RANDOLPH, 

ON THE- 

Zaviff MUif 

JK THE HOUSE OF nEPRESENTATIVES, ArttIL 15, 1824. 

Mr. RANDOLPH, of Virginia, addressed the chair. I am, said 
he, practising no deception upon myself, much less upon the House, 
when I say, that, if I had coiisulted iny own feelings and inclinatiofis, 
I should not have troubled the House, exhausted as it is, and as I 
am, with any further remarks upon this subject. I come to the dis- 
charge of this task, not merely with reluctance, but with disgust; 
jaded, worn down, abraded, I may say, as 1 am by long attend- 
ance upon this body, and continued stretch of the attention upon this 
subject. I come to it, however, at the suggestion, and in pursuance 
of the wishes of those, whose wishes are to me, in all matters touch- 
ing my public dnty, paramount law; I speak with those reservations, 
of course, which every moral agent must be supposed to make to 
himself. 

It was not more to his surprise, than to his disappointment, Mr. 
R.said,that, on his return to the House, after a necessary absence of 
a few days, on indispensable business, he found it engaged in discus- 
sing the general principle of the bill, when its details were under 
consideration. If he had expected such a turn in the debate, he 
would, at any private sacrifice, however great, have remained a spec- 
tator and auditor of th .t discussion. With the exception of the 
speech, already published, of his worthy colleague on his right (Mr. P. 
P. Barbour,) Mr. R. said, he was nearly deprived of the benefit <if the 
discussion which had taken place. Many weeks had been occupied 
with this bill (he hoped the House would pardon him for saying so,) 
before he took the slightest part in the deliberations on the details, 
and he now sincerely regretted that he had not had firmness enough 
to adhere to the resolution which he had laid down to himself in 
the early stage of the debate, not to take any part in the discussion 
of the details of the measure.* But, as he trusted, what he now had 
to say upon this subject, although more and better things had been 
said by others, migiit not be the same that they had said, or might 

* By so doinsf, many of Mr. R's strongest objections to the hill were in » 
manner dissipated, tliere beinp no report of these skirmishes. Some of Iheni, 
with wliich he Uiouj^ht it indecent attain to trouble the House, will be foond 
(substantiallvj appended to this speech. 

5 



JHf;;. HTM' 



so 

not be said in the same manner, he here borrowed the language of 
a man who had been lieretofore conspicuitus in the councils of the 
country; of one who was unrivalled for rradiness and dexterity in 
debate; who was long without an equal on the floor of this body; who 
had contributed as much to the revolution of 1801, as any man in 
this nation,* and h.id derived as little benefit from it; — as, to use the 
W')rds n( that celebrated man, what he had to say was not that which 
h.iil been said by dthers, and would not be said in their manner, the 
ll^mse would, he trusted, have patience with him during the short 
time that his strength would allow him to occupy Hu-ir attention. 
And he begged them to understand, that the notes which he held in 
his hand were not notes on which he meant to speak, but of what 
others had spoken, and from which he would make the s^nallest se- 
lection in his power. 

Here permit me to say, observed Mr. R. that I am obliged, and 
with great reluctance, to ditf'er rr(>m my worthy colleague, who has 
taken so conspicuous a part in this debate, about one fact, which I will 
call to his recollection: for I am sure it was in his memory, though 
sli'cpi»ig. He has undertaken to state the causes by which the dif- 
ference in the relative condition of various parts of the Union has 
been produced: but, my worthy colleague has omitted to state the 
primvm nwhlle of the commerce and manufactures to which a por- 
tion of the country that I need not name, owes its present pros- 
perity and wealth. That primum mobile was southern capital. 
I speak now not of transactions quorum, pars minima fui,h\xi of 
things of wiiich, nevertheless, I have a contemporaneous recollec- 
tion. I say, without the fear of contradiction, then, that, in con- 
sequence of the enormous depreciation of the evidences of the 
public debt of this courttry — tiie debt proper of the United States 
(to which must be added an item of not less than twenty mil- 
lions of d«)llurs, for the state debts assumed by the United States,) 
being bought up and almost engrossed by the people of what 
were then called the northern states — a measure which nobodj 
dreamt any thing about, or which nobody had the slightest sus- 
picion — I mean the assumption of the state debts by the federal 
government — tiiese debts being bought up for a mere song, a capi- 
tal of eighty millions of dollars, or, in other words, a credit to that 
amount, bearing an interest of six per cent, per annum (with the 
exception of nineteen millions (the interest of that debt,) which bore 
an intiirest of three per cent.) {See note 2, Appendix,) — a capital of 
eighty millions of dollars was poured, in a single day, into the cof- 
fers of the north : and to that cause we may mainly ascribe the differ- 
ence, so disastrous to the south, between that country and the other 
portion of this Union, to which I have alluded. When we, said Mr. 
K. roused by the sufferings of our brethren of Boston, entered int© 
Uk* contest with the mother country, and when we came out of it — 
when this constitution was adopted, we were comparatively rich; 
fheii were positively poor. What is now our relative situation? 

• See Note 1, Appendix. 




SI 

They are flourishing and rich: We are ti-ibutary to them, not onljr 
through the medium of the public debt of which I have spoken, but 
also through the medium of the pension list, nearly the whole amount 
of which is disbursed in the eastern states — and to this creation ot a 
day is to be ascribed the difference of our relative situation, (I hope 
my worthy colleague will not consider any thing that I say as con- 
flicting \vith his general principles, to which I heartily subscribe.) 
{Note 3 of Jippendix.) — Yea, sir; and the price paid for the creation 
of all that portion of this capital, which consisted of the assumed 
debts of the states, was the immense boon of fixing the seat of govern- 
ment where it now is. And I advert to this bargain, oecause I wish 
to shew to every member of this House, and, if it were possible, to 
every individual of tliis nation, the most tremendous and calaniitous 
results of political bargaining. 

Sir, vv'icn are we to have enough of this Tariff question? In 1816, 
it was supposed to be settled. Only three years thereafter, another 
propositiim for increasing it was sent from this House to the Senate, 
baited with, a tax of four cents per pousid on bruvvn sugar. It was, 
fortunately, rejected in that body. In what manner //«s 6j7/ is baited, 
it does not become me to say; but 1 have too distinct a recollection 
of the vote in committee of the wliole, on the duty upon molasses, 
and afterwards, of the vote in the Hituse on the same question; 
of the votes of more than one of the states on that question, not to 
mark it well. I do not say that the change of the vote on that qms • 
tion was effected by any man's voting against his own motion; but I 
do not hesitate to say, that it was effected by one man's electioneer- 
ing against his own motion. I am very glad, Mr. Speakt;r, that old 
Massachusetts Bay, and the Province of Maine and Sagadahock, by 
whom we stood in the days of the Revolution, now stand by the 
South, and will not aid in fixing on us this system of tax:ition, com- 
pared with which, the taxation of Mr. Grenville and Lord North was 
as nothing. I speak with knowle<ige of what I say, when I declare, 
that this bill is an attempt to reduce the country, south of Mason and 
Dixon's line and east of the Allegany mountains, to a state (sf worse 
than colonial bondage; a state to which the domination of Great 
Britain was, in my judgment, fir preferable; and I trust I shall al- 
ways have the fearless integrity to utter any political sentiment 
which the head sanctions and the heart ratifies: for the British 
Parliament never would have dared to lay such duties on our im- 
ports, or their exports to us, either "a/ //©?«(" or here, as is now 
proposed to be laid upon the imports from abroad. At that time, we 
had the command of the market of the vast dominions then subject, 
and we should have had those which have since been subjected, to 
the British empire: we enjoyed a free trade, eminently superior to 
any thing that we can enjoy, if this bill shall f;o into operation. It 
is a sacrifice of the interests of a part of this nation to the ideal be- 
nefit of the rest. It marks us out as the victims of a worse than 
Egyptian bondage. It is a barter <A so much of our rights, of so 
much of the fruits {)f our labor, for political power to be transferred 



32 

lo ether hands. It ou^ht to be met, and 1 trust it will be met, irt 
the Southern country, as was the Stamp act, and by all those mea- 
sures, which 1 will not detain the House by recapitulating, which 
succeeded the Stamp act, and produced the final breach with the 
mother country, which it took about ten years to bring about; as I 
trust iu my conscience, it will not take as long to bring about simi- 
lar results from this measure, should it become a law. 

All policy is very suspicious, says an eminent statesman, that sa- 
crifices the interest of any part of a community to the ideal good of 
the whole; and those governments only are tolerable, where, by the 
necessary construction of the political machine, the interest of all 
the parts aie oblieed to be protected by it. Here is a district of 
country extending from the Patapsco to the Gulf of Mexico, from the 
Allegany to the Atlantic, a district, which, taking in all that part of 
Maryland lying south of the Patapsco and east of Elk river, rai.se?i 
i\\ e sixths of all the exports of this country, that are of home growth— 
I have in my hand the official statements, which prove it, but which 
I will not weary the House by reading, (See JipjMndix, note 4.) — in 
all this countrj — Yes, sir, and I bless God for it; for, with all the 
fantastical and preposterous theories about the rights of man (the 
iJieori'S, not the rights themselves, I speak of,) there is nothing but 
power that can restrain power — I bless God, that, in this insulted, 
oppressed, and outrages* region, we are, as to our counsels in regard 
to this measure, but as one man; that there exists on the subject but 
one feeling and one interest. We are proscribed and put to the ban; 
and, if we do not feel, and. feeling, do not act, we are bastards to those 
fathers who achieved the Revolution: then shall we deserve to make 
our bricks without straw. There is no case on record, in which a 
proposition like this, suddenly changing the whole frame of a coun- 
try's polity, tearing asunder every ligature of the body politic, was, 
ever carried by a lean majority of two or three votes, unless it be 
the usurpation of the septennial act, which passed the British Parlia- 
ment by, [ think, a majority of one vote, the same that laid the tax 
on cotton bagging. I do not stop here, sir, to argue about the con- 
stitutionality of this bill; I consider the constitution a dead letter: I 
consider it to consist, at this time, of the power of the general go- 
vernment and the power of the states: that is the constitution You 
may entrench voursi If in parchment to the teetii, says Lord Chat- 
haoi, the sword will find its way to the vitals of the constitution. 
I have no faith in paichment, sir; I have no faith in the abracadabra 
of rhe constitution; I have no faith in it. I have faith in the power 
of that commonwealth, of which I am an tinworthy son; in the power 
of those Carolinas, and of that Georgia, in her antient and utmost ex- 
tent, to the Mississippi, which went with us through the valley of the 
shadow of (leHfh, in the war of our independence. I have said, that 
I shall not stop to discuss the constitutionality of this question, for 
that reason, and for a better: that there never was a constitution 
under the su.i, in which, by an unwise '^xercise of the powers of the 
governmeui, the people may not be driven to the extremitj of re;- 



33 

sistance by force. " For it is not, perhaps, so much by the assump- 
" tion of unlawful powers, as by the unwisf or unwarrantable use of 
" those which are most legal, that govorninents oppose their true end 
" and object; for there is such a thing as tyraiuiy as well as usurpa- 
"tion." If, under a power to regulate trade, you prevent expor- 
tation; if, with the most approved spring lancets, you draw the last 
drop of blood from our veins; if, uecundimi arfeni, you draw the last 
shilling from our pockets, v.' hat are the checks of the constitution to 
us? A fig for the constitution! When the scorpion's sting is probing 
US to the quick, shall we stop to chop logic? Shall we get some 
learned and cunning clerk to say whether the power to »lo this is to 
be found in the constitution, and then, if ho, from wliatever motive, 
shall maintain the affirmative, like the animal whose lleece forms so 
material a portion of this bill, quietly lie down and be shorn? 

Sir, events now passing elsewhere, which plant a thorn iu my pil- 
low and a dagger in my heart, admonish me ot the diiiiculty of go- 
verning with sobriety any people who are overhead and ears in debt. 
That state of things begets a temper which sets at naught every 
thing likt' reason and common sense. Hiis country is unquestionably 
laboring under great distress, but we cannot legislate it outof that dis- 
tres.-. We may, bv your legislation, reduce all the country south and 
east of Mason andDixon's line, the whites as well as tiie blacks, to the 
conditions of Helots — Y<ui can do no more. We have had placed 
before us, in the course of (his discussion, foreign examples and au- 
thorities; and among other things, we have been told, as an argu- 
ment in favor of this measure, of the prosperity of Great Britain. 
Have gentlemen taken into consideration the pecaliar advantages of 
Great Britain? Have they taken into consideration that, not except- 
ing Mexico, and that fine country which lies between the Orinoco and 
the Caribbean sea, England is decidedly superior in point of physical 
advantages, to every country under the sun? This is unquestionably 
true. I will enumerate some of those advantages. First, there is iier 
climate. In England, such is the teuiperature of the air, tliat. a man can 
there do more day's work in the year, and more hours work in the day, 
than in any (»ther climate in the world; of course I include Scotland 
and Ireland in this description. It is in such a climate only, that 
the human animal can bear without extirpation the corrupted air, the 
noisome exhalations, the incessant labor of these accursed manufiic- 
tories. — Yes, sir, accursed; for I say it is an accursed thinj? which I 
will neither taste, nor touch, nor handle. If we were to act here on 
the English system, we should have the yellow fever at Philadelphia, 
New Yoik, &c. not in Augtist merely, but from June to January, 
and from January to JuTie. The climate of tins country alone, were 
there no other natural obstacle to it, says aloud, you shall not man- 
ufacture! Even our tobacco factories, admitted to be the most whole- 
some of any sort of factories, are known to be, where extensive, the 
very Nidus (if I may use the expression,) of Yellow Fever and other 
fevers of similar type. In another of the advantages of Great Bri- 
tain, so important to her prosperity, we arc almost on apar withher. 



S4 

if wc knew hnw properly to use it. — Forlunalos nimium sua si bona 
norhii — for, as icg.irds defence, wk are, to all intonts and pui poses, 
almosi as inucli ai» island as fCngland herself. But one of her insu- 
lar advantagis we. can never acquire. Kvery part of that country is 
accessible from thi' sea. There, as yi»u recede from tlie sea, you do not 
get further from the sea. I know ih.it a great deal will be said of our 
«naje»tic rivers, about t)ie father of floods, and his tributary streams; 
but, with the Ohio, frozen up all the winter and d y all the summer, 
with a long tortutus, difficult, and dantrerous navigation thence to 
the ocean, thcgi iitlemen of the west may rest assured that they will 
never derve one particle of advantage, from even a total prohibition 
of foreign manufactures. You may su^^xeed in reducing ms to your own 
level of misery; but, if we were to agree, to become your slaves, you 
never can derive one farthing of advantage from this bill. What 
parts of tiiis country can derive any advantage from it? Those parts 
oidy, where therf* is a water power in immediate contact with navi- 
gation, such as the vicinities of Boston, Pruvidence, Baltimore, 
Richmond, &c. Petersburg is the last of these as you travel 
south.^ Vou take a bag of cotton up the river to Pittsburg, or 
toZanesville, to have it manufacturpd and sent down to New Or- 
leans for a market, and before your bagof cotton has got to the place 
of manufacture, the manufacturer of Providence has received his re- 
turns for the goods made from his bag of cotton purchased at the 
same time that you purchased yours. No, sir, gentlemen may as well 
insist that because the Chesapeiike Bay, mare nostrum^ our Medi- 
terranean Sea, gives us every advantage of navigation, we shall ex- 
clude from it every thing but Steam-boats and those boats called kaf 
exochen, per emphasin, par exaifence, Kentucky boats — a sort of 
huge, square, clumsy wooden box. And why not insist upon it? 
Hav'nt you " the power to regulate Commerce.^" Would not that 
too be a " regulation of Commercr?" It would, indeed, and a 
pretty regulation it is; and so is this bill. And, Sir, I marvel that the 
representation from the great cdmmercial state of New York should 
be in favor of this bill. If operative — and if inoperative why talk of it.^ 
— W operative, it must, like the embargo of 1807, 8, 9, transfer no 
small portion of the wealth of the London of America, as New York 
has been called, to Quebec and Montreal. She will receive the most 
of her imports from abroad, down the river. I do not know any bill 
that could be better calculated for Vermont than this bill: because, 
through Vermont, from Quebec, Montreal, and other positions on the 
St. Lawrence, we are, if it passes, unquestionably to receive our sup- 
plies of foreign goods. Itwdl no doubt, also, suit the Niagara frontier. 
But, sir, I must not suft'er myself to be led too far astray from the 
topic of the peculiar arlvantages of England as a manufacturing 
country. Her vast beds of coal are inexhaustible: there are daily 
discoveries of quantities of it, greater than ages past have yet con- 

•Petersburjr is the last of these situations combininjf navigation and water 
liowcr, as you travel soutliward from Boston lo New Qrleans. 



85 

sumed; to which becUof coal her nianufactunn)» establishments have 
been transferred, as any man may see who will compare the present 
population of her towns with what it was formerly. It is to these 
beds of coal that Birmingham, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Shef- 
field, Leetis, and other manufacturing towns, owe their growth. If 
you could destroy her coal in one day, you v/ould cut at once the si-^ 
news of her power. Then, there are her metals, and particularly tin, of 
which she has the exclusive monopoly. Tin> I know, is to be found in 
Japan, and perhaps elsewhere, but, in practice, England has now the 
monopoly of that article. I might go further, said Mr. R. and I might 
*y, that England possesses :in advantage, quo ad hoc, in her insti- 
tutions; for ihere men are cotiipelled to pay tlieir debts. But, /i£re, 
men are not only not compelled to pay their debts, but they are pro- 
tected in the refusal to pay them, in the scandalous evasion of their 
legal obligations; and, after being convicted of embezzling the public 
money, and the money of others, of which they were the appointed 
guardians and trustees, they have the impudence to obtrude their 
unblushing fronts into society, and elbow honest men out of their 
way. There, though all men are on a footing of equality on the high 
way, and in the courts of law, at mill artd at market, yet the castes 
in Hindoostan are not more distinctly separated, one from the other, 
than the diif^ront classes of society are in England. It is true that 
itis practicable for a wealthy merchant or a manufacturer, or his de- 
scendants, after having, through two or three generations, washed out 
what is considered the stain of their original occupation, to emerge, 
by slow degrees, into the higher ranks of society; but this rarely 
happens. Can you find men of vast fortune, in tliis country, content 
to n\ove in the" lower circles— content as the ox under the daily 
drudgery of the yoke.^ It is true that, in England, some of these 
weaUhy' people take it into their heads to buy seats in Parliament, 
But, when they get there, unless they possess great talents, they are 
mere nonentities; their existence is only to be found in the Red Book 
which contains a list of the members of Parliament. Now, sir, I 
♦vish to know if, in the western country, where any man may get 
beastly drunk for three pence sterling — in England you cannot get 
a small wine glass of spirits under twenty five cents; one such drink 
of grog as I have seen swallowed in this country, would there cost a 
dollar — in the western country, wliere every man can get as much 
meat and bread as he can consume, aad yet spend the best part of 
his days, and nights too, perhaps, on the tavern benches, or loitering 
at the cross roads asking the news; caja you expect the people of 
such a country, with countless millions of wild land and wild animals 
besides, can be cooped upin manufacturing establishments, and made 
to work sixteen hours a day, under the superintendence of a driver — 
yes, a driver, compared with whom a southern overseer ia a gentle- 
man and man of refinement; for, if they do not work, these work 
people in the manufactories, they cannot eat — and, among all the 

funishments that can be devised (put death even among the number,) 
defy you to get as much work out of a man by any of them, as when 
he knows that he must work before he can eat. 



35 

But, Sir, if we foKow fhe example of England in one respect, ai 
we are invited to do, we must also fcdlow it in another. If we adopt 
her policy, we must adopt her institutions also. Her policy is the 
result of her institutions, and our in^stitutions must be as the result of 
our |)nlioy, assimilateii to hers. We cannot adopt such an exterior 
system as that of Knj^Iand. witliout adopting also her interior policy. 
We have heaid of her Wi-alth, her greatness, her glory; hut her eulo- 
gist is silent .sbnut the poverty, wretchedness, misery, of the lowest 
orders. Shew »ne the country, say gentlemen, which has risen to 
glory without this system of bounties aru! protection on manufactures. 
Sir, shew ?ne any country, beyond our own, winch has risen to glory 
or to greatne.ss, without an established church, or without a powerful 
aristocracy, if not an hereditary nobility. I know no country in Eu- 
rope, except Turkey, without hereditary nobles. Must we, too, have 
thi"seCoririthiaiiornan\evitsofsociety, because those countries of great- 
ness and glory have given in to them? Rut, after we shall have destroy- 
ed all our forei;in trade; after we shall have, by the prevention of im- 
ports, cut off" exports — thus keeping fhe promise of the constitution 
to the ear, and iireakin<^- it to the hope — raltering with the people in 
a double sense — after we shall have ilone this, we are told " we shali 
on/if have to resort to an excise — we have only to change the mode of 
colieciion of taxes from (he peiple; bith modes of taxation are volun- 
tari/.^^ Vei-y voiuiitary! 'I'he cxcisemim comes into my house» 
searches my premises, respects n<it even the privacy of female apart- 
ments, measures, gauges and weighs every thing, levies a tax upon 
eviM-y tliiuL':, and then tells me the tax is a voluntary one on my part, 
and that I am, or oujiht to b<', content. Yes, voluntary, as Portia 
said to Shylock, when she played the judge so rarely — art thou con- 
tent Jew? Art thou content ? 

These taxes, however, it seems, are voluntary, "as being altogether 
upon consumption." By a recent speech on tliis subject, the greater 
part of which, said Mr. Fl. I was so fortunate as to hear, 1 learn 
that there have been only two hundred capital prosecutions in Eng- 
land, within a given time, for violations of the revenue laws. Are 
we ready, if one of us, too poor to own a saddle horse, should borrow 
a saddle and clap it on his plough horse, to ride to church or 
court, or mill or market, to be taxed for a surplus saddle-horse, and 
surcharged for having failed to list him as such? Arc gentlemen 
a\vare «)f the inciuisitoiial, dispensing, arbitrary, and almost papal 
power of (lie Commissioners of Excise? I shall not stop to go in- 
to a detail of them; but I never did expect to hear it said, on this 
floor, and by a gentleman from Kentucky too, that the excise system 
was a mere scare-crow, a bug-bear, that the sound of the words con- 
stituted all the difterence between a system of excise, and a system 
of customs; that both meant the same thing: — "Write them together, 
your's is as fair a name; — Souiid them, it doth become the mouth, 
as well'' — here. Sir, I must beg leave to differ, I do not think it 
does: — " Weigh them, it is as //fOT't/" — that 1 grant — " conjure 
with them" — excise "will start a spirit as soon as" mslonn', — 



37 

— 77«s I verily belieye Sir, and I wish, with all my heart, if this bill 
is to pass; if new and unnecessary burthens are to be wantonly im- 
posed upon the people; that we were to return home with the bles- 
sed news of a tax or excise, not less by way of "minimum," than 
fifty cents per gallon upon whiskey. And here, if I did not consider 
an exciseman to bear, according to the language of the old law books, 
caput lupinum, and that it was almost as meritorious to shoot such a 
hell-hound of tyranny, as to shoot a wolf or a mad dog- — and, if I did 
not know that any thing like an excise in this country is in effect ut- 
terly impracticable, I myself, feeling, seeing, blushing for my country, 
would gladly vote to lay an excise on this abominable liquor, the 
lavish consumption of which renders this the most drunken nation 
under the sun; and yet, we have refused to take the duties from 
wines, from cheap French wines particularly, that might lure the dog 
from his vomit, and lay the foundation of a reformation of the public 
manners. Sir, an excise system can never be maintained in this 
country. I had as lief be a tythe-proctor in Ireland, and met on a 
dark night in a narrow road by a dozen white-boys, or peep-of-day 
boys, or hearts of oak, or hearts of steel, as an exciseman in the Al- 
leghany mountains, met, in a lonely road, or by-place, by a back- 
woodsman, with a rifle in his hand. With regard to Ireland, the Bri- 
tish chancellor of the exchequer has been obliged to reduce the excise 
in Ireland on distilled spirits, to comparatively nothing to what it was 
formerly, in consequence of the impossibility of collecting it in that 
country. Ireland is, not to speak with statistical accuracy, about the 
size of Pennsylvania, containing something like twenty -five thousand 
square miles of territory, with a population of six millions of inhabi ■ 
tants, nearly as great a number as the whole of the white population 
of the United States; with a standing army of 20,000 men; with ano- 
ther standing army, composed of all those classes in civil life, who, 
through the instrumentality of that army, keep the wretched people in 
subjection — under all these circumstances, even in Ireland, the ex- 
cise cannot be collected. I venture to say, that no army that the 
earth has ever seen— not such an one as that of Bonaparte, which 
marched to the invasion of Russia — would be capable of collecting an 
excise in this country — not such an one as that described, if you will 
allow me to give some delightful poetry in exchange for very wretch- 
ed prose, as Milton has described: 

♦' Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp, 

When Agrican, with all his northern powers, 

Besieged Albracca, as romances tell, 

Tiie city of Calliphrone, from whence to win 

The fairest of her sex, Angelica, 

His daughter, sought by many prowest knights. 

Both Paynlmand the Peers of Charlemagne." 

Not such a force, nor even the troops with which he compares 
them, which were no less than " the legion fiends of hell," could col- 
lect an excise here. If any officer of our government were to take 
6 



38 

the field a still -hunting, as they call it in Ireland, among our aoulh- 
ern or western forests and tnourtains, I should like to see th^* throw- 
ing off" of the hounds. I have still enough of the sportsman about me, 
that I should like to see the breaking cover; and, above all, I should 
like to be in at the death. 

And what, said Mr. Randolph, are we now about to do? For 
what was the Constitution formed? To drive the people of any 
part of this Union from the plough to the distaff"? Sir, the Con- 
gtitution of the United States never would have been for.ned, and 
if formed, would have been scouted, una voce, by the people, if 
viewed as a means for eff"ecting purposes like this. The Constitu- 
tion was formed for exti-rnal purposes, to raise armies and navies, and 
to lay uniform duties on imports, to raise a revenue to defray the ex- 
penditure for such objects. What are you going to do now? To 
turn the Constitution wrong side out; to abandon foreign commerce 
and exterior relations — I am sorry to use this Frenchified word — the 
foreign affairs, which it was established to regulate, and convert it 
into a municipal agent, to carry a system of espionage and excise 
into every log house in the United States. We went to war with 
Great Britain for Free Trade and Sailors' Rights; we made a Treaty 
of Peace in which I never could, with the aid of my glasses, see a 
word about either the one or the other of these objects of contention; 
we are now determined never to be engaged in another for such pur- 
poses; for we are, ourS' Ives, putting an end to them. And, by the way 
of comfort in this state of things, we have been told, by the doctor 
as well as by the apothecary, that much cannot be immediately ex- 
pected from this new scheme; that years will pass away before it.s 
beneficial effects will be fully realized. And to whom is this told? 
To the consumptive patient it is said — here is the remedy; persevere 
in it for a few years, and it will infallibly cure your disorder: and 
this infallible "remedy is prescribed for pulmonary consumption, 
which is an opprobrium of physicians, and has reached a stage, that, 
in a few months, not to say days, must inevitably terminate the ex- 
istence of the patient. This is to be done too, on the plea that the 
people who call for this mea^ure are already ruined. I will do any 
thing, sir, in reason, to relieve these persons; but I can never agree, 
because they are ruined, and we are half-ruined only, that we shall 
be entirely rumed, for the contingent possibility of their reli<'f. We 
have no belief in this new theory — new, for it came in with the 
French Revolution, and that is of modern date — of the transfusion of 
blood from a healthy anin\al to a sick one: and, if there is to be such 
a transfusion fot the benefit of these ruined persons now, we refer 
the gentlemen to bulls and goats for supplies of blood, for we should 
be the veriest asses to permit them to draw our own. 

We are told, however, that we have nothing to do but to postpone 
the payment of the public debt for a few years, and wait for an accu- 
mulation of wealth, for a new run of Iuck, 

" Kusticus expectat dum defluet omnis et ille 
*• Labitur et labitur in otnne volubilis OEVum." 



V 



39 

This postponement of the public debt is nd novelty. All debts are, now-, 
a-days, as old Lilly hath it, in the future in rus, " about to be" paid. 
We have gone on postponing paying the national debt, and our own 
debts, until individual credit is at an end; until property, low as it is 
reduced in price by our fantastic legislation, can no longer be bought 
but for ready nionev. Here is one, and there the other. 1 am de- 
scribing a state of society which 1 know to exist in a part of Um coun- 
try, and which I hear, with concern, does exist in a greater degree, 
in a much larger portion of the country, than I pretend to be per- 
sonally acquainted with. 

In all beneficial changes in the natural world— -and the sentiment 
is illustrated by one of the most beautiful eftusions of imagination 
and genius that I ever read — in all those changes, which are the 
work of an all-wise, all-seeing, and superintending providence, as in 
the insensiblegradation by which the infant bud expands intomanhoud, 
and tnuTi manhood to ceniiity; or, if you will, to caducity itself, — 
you find nature never working but by gradual and imperceptible 
changes; you cannot see the object move, but take your eje from it 
for a while, and, like the index of that clock, you can see that it has 
moved. 'I'he old proverb says, God works good, and always by 
degrees. The devil, on the other hand, is bent on mischief, and al- 
ways in a hurry. He cannot stay: his object is mischief, which can 
best be effected suddenly, and he must be gone to work elsewhere. 
But we have the comfort, under the pressure of this measure, that at 
least no force is exercised upon us; we are not obliged to buy goods 
of foreign manufacture. It is true, sir, that gentlemen liave not 
said you shall not send your tobacco or cot' on abroad; but they 
have said Ihe same thing, in other words; by preventing the importa- 
tion of the returns which we used to receive, and without which, the 
sale or exchange of our produce is impracticable, they say to us, you 
shall sell only to us, and we will give you what we please; you shall 
buy only of us, but at what price we pit ase to ask. But no force is 
used! You are at full liberty no< to buy or to sell. Sir, when an Eng- 
lish Judge once told a certain ruiate of Brentford, that the court uf 
chancery was open equally to the rich and the poor, Horne Tooke 
replied, " so, my lord, is the London Tavern." You show a blanket 
or a warm rug to a wretch that is shivering with cold, and tell him 
you shall get one no where else, but you are at liberty not to buy niine. 

No Jew, who ever tampered with the necei'sities of a profligate 
young heir, lending him money at an usury of cent, per cent., ever 
acted more paternally tlitin the advocates of this bill, to those upon 
whom it is to operate. I advise you, young man, for your good, says 
the usurer. I do these things very reluctantly, says Moses — these 
courses will lead you to ruin. But, no force — no sir, no force short 
of Russian despotism, shall induce me to purchase, or, knowing it, 
to use any article from the regiim of country which attempts tocrain 
this bill down our throats. On this, we of the south are as resolved, 
as wevc our fathers about the tea, which they refused to drink; for 
this is the same old question of the stamp act in a new shape, viz: 
whether they, who have no common feeling with us, shall impose oji 



•10 

us, not merely a burthensome but a ruinous tax, and that, by way of 
experiment and sport. And I say again, if wp are to submit to such 
usurpations, give me George Grenville, giv«i me Lord North for a 
master. It is in this point of view that I most deprecate the bill. 
If, (said Mr. R.) from the language I have used, any gentleman shall 
-believe I am not as much attached to this Union as any one on this 
floor, he will labor under a great mistake. But there is no magic in 
this word union. 1 value it as the means of preserving the liberty 
and happiness of the people. Marriage itself is agood thing, but the 
marriages of Mezentius were not so esteemed. The marriage of Sin- 
bad, the sailor, with the corse of his deceased wife, was an union, and 
just sucli an union will this be, if, by a bare majority in both Houses, 
this bill shall become a law. And, 1 ask, sir, whether it will redound to 
the honor of this House, if this bill should pass, that the people should 
owe their escape to the act of any others rather than to us.^ Shall 
we, when even the British Parliament are taking off taxes by whf)le- 
sale — when all the assessed taxes are diminished fifty per cent, — when 
the tax on salt is reduced seven eighths, with a pledge that the 
remainder shall come off, and the whole would have been repeal- 
ed, but that it was kept on as a salvo for the wounded pride of Mr. 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, when asked — why keep on 
this odious tax, wiiich brings but a paltry hundred and fifty thousand 
per annum.'' answered, by subterfuge and evasion, as I have heard done 
in this House, and drew back upon his resources, his majority — how 
will it answer for the people to have to look up for their escape from 
oppression, not to their immediate Representatives, but to the Repre- 
sentatives of the States, or, possibly, to the Executive.** And, permit 
me here to say, and I say it freely because it is true, that I join as 
heartily as any man, in reprehending "the cold, ambiguous support 
of the executive government to this bill." T do not use my own 
words; I deprecate as much as any member of this House can do, 
that the Executive of this country should lend to this bill, or to any 
other bill, a cold and ambiguous support, or support of any sort, un- 
til it comes before him in tlie shape of a law, unless it be a measure 
which he, in his constitutional capacity, may have invited Congress 
to pass. I may be permitted to say, and I will say, that, in case this 
bill should be unhappily presented to him for his signature, and as an 
allusion has been made to him in debate, I presume I may repeat it, 
— I hope he will recollect how much the country that gave him birth 
has done for him, and the litth?, not to say worse than nothing, that, 
during his administration, he has done for her. I hope, Sir, he will 
scout the bill as contrary to the genius of our government, to the 
whole spirit and letter of our confederation — 1 say of our confedera- 
tion — Blessed be God, it is a confederation, and that it contains with- 
in itself the redeemine^ power which has more than once been exer- 
cised — and that it contains within itself the seeds of preservation, if 
not of tills Union, at least of the individual. Commonwealths of which 
it is composed. 
But, sir, not satisfied with an appeal to the example of Great Bri- 



\; 



41 

tain, whom we have been content hitherto very sedulously to cen- 
sure and to imitate, — as I once heard a certain person say that it was 
absolutely necessary for persons of a peculiar character to be ex- 
tremely vehement of censure of the very vice of which they are 
themselves guilt}' — the example of Russia has been introduced, the 
very last, I should suppose, that would be brought into this House 
on this or any other question. A gentleman from South Carolina 
(Mr. Poinsett,) whose intelligence and information I very much re- 
spect, but the feebleness of whose voice does not permit him to be 
heard as distinctly as could be wished, remarked the other day, and, 
having it on my notes, I will, with his leave, repeat it — Russia is 
cursed with a paper money, which, in point of depreciation and its 
consequent embarrasment to her, can boast of no advantage, I be- 
lieve, even over that of Kentucky — so cursed, that it is impossible, 
until her circulation is restored to a healthful state, she can ever 
take her station as a commercial or manufacturing nation, to any 
extent. Nay, more, Russia, with the exception of a few of her pro- 
vinces, consists, like the interior of America, of a vast inland con- 
tinent, desolated and deformed by prairies or steppes, as they are 
there called, inhabited by a sparse population; and, as an appeal has 
been made to experience, said Mr. R. I ask any gentleman to shew 
me an instance of any country under the sun that has, under these 
circumstances, taken a stand as a manufacturing or great commer- 
cial nation. These great rivers and inland seas cut a mighty figure 
on the map, but, when you come to consider of capacities for foreign 
commerce, how unlike the insular situation of Great Britain, or the 
peninsular situation of almost the whole continent of Europe — sur- 
rounded or penetrated as it is by inland seas and gulfs! May I be par- 
doned for adverting to the fact — I know that comparisons are extreme- 
ly odious — that, when we look to Salem and Boston, to parts of the 
country where skill, and capital, and industry, notoriously exist, we 
find opposition to this bill; and that, when we look to countries which 
could sooner build one hundred pyramids, such as that of Cheops, 
than manufacture on3 cambric needle, or a paper of White Chapel 
pins, or a watch-spring, we hear a clamour about this system for 
the protection of manufactures. The merchants and manufacturers 
of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, the Province of Maine, and Sa- 
gadahock repel this bill, wliilst men in hunting shirts, with deer-skin 
leggins and moccasins on their feet, want protection for manufactures 
— men with rifles on their shoulders, and long knives in their belts, 
seeking in the forests to lay in their next winter's supply of bear- 
meat. But it is not there alone thecry is heard. It is at ]'»altimore — 
decayed, deserted Baltimore, whose exports have more than one-half 
decreased, whilst those of Boston have four times increased — it is de- 
cayed and deserted Baltimore that comes here and asks us for the pro - 
lection of those interests which have grown up dining the late war^ — 
privateering among the number, I presume. Philadelphia, too, in a 
^tate of atrophy, asks for tlie measure — Piiiladelphia, who never can, 
pass what bill you please, have a foreign trade to any great amount. 



» 



42 



or become a great manufacturing town, for which she wants all the 
elements ofclimate, coal, and capital — this city, no»v over built, swoln 
4 to the utmost extent of the integument, and utterly destitute of force 

or weight in the Uiiion, wants this bill f;»r the protection of the do- 
mestic industry of her free blacks, I presume. New York, too, is 
now willing tc-) build up Montreal and Quebec at her expense — to 
convert the Hudson into a theatre for rival disputants about steam- 
boats in the courts below stairs, and for them, and such as them, 
with a coasting licence, to ply upon. The true remedy, and the only 
one, for the iron manufacturer of Pennsylvania, who has nothing but 
iron to sell, and that, they tell us, is worth nothing, would be to l.iy 
^ on the table of this House a declaration of war in blank, and then go 

into a committee of the whole, to see what nation in the world it 
would be most convenient to go to war with — for, fill the blank with 
the name of what power you please, it must be a sovereign state, 
and, though it have not a seaman or a vessel in the world, its com- 
missions are as good and valid in an admiralty court, as those of the 
Lord High Admiral of Great Britain. In this way you will put our 
furnaces in blast, and your paper mills into full operation; and many, 
**»;iv, very many, who, during the last war, transported flour on horse-back 
^K^.,i" for the supply of your army, at the cost of an hundred dollars per 

"^ barrel, and who have since transported provisions in steam-boats up 

and down the Missouri river — very many such individuals would 
thus be taken out of the very jaws of bankruptcy and lifted up to 
opulence, at the expense of that people, at whose expense, also, you 
are now about to enable these iron manufacturers to fill their pock- 
ets. New England does not want this bill. Connecticut, indeed, 
molasses having been thrown overboard to lighten the ship, votes for 
this bill. A word in the ear of the land of steady habits — I voted 
against that tax, on the principle, which has always directed my 
public life, not to compromise my opinions — not to do evil that good 
may come of it — let me tell the land of steady habits, that, after this 
bill shall be fairly oft' the shore; after we shall have ^cleared decks 
and made ready for action again; after she shall have imposed on me 
the onerous burthen of this bill, she shall have the benefit of my vote 
fo put on again this duty on molasses — not at this day— this is not 
the last tarirt' measure; for, in less than five years, 1 wSuld, if I were 
%/ a betting man, wager any odds that we have another" tariff" proposi- 

* tion, worse by far than that, amendments to which gentlemen had 

strangled yesterday by the bow-string of the previous question. Fair 
dealing leads to safe counsels and safe issues. There is a certain 
left handecl wisdom, that often overreaches its own objects, which, 
grasps at the shadow and lets go the substance. We shall not only 
have this duty on molasses, I can tell the gentlemen from Connecti- 
cut, but we shall have, moreover, an additional bounty on intoxica- 
tion by whiskey, in the shape of an additional duty on foreign distil- 
led spirits. 

The ancient Commonwealth of Virginia, one of whose unworthy 
sons, and more unworthy leprescntatives, 1 am, said Mr. II., must 
now begin to 0[)en her eyes to tlie fatal policy which s!ie has niir«u- 



48 

ed for the last forty years. I have not a doubt, that they who were 
the agents for transferring her vast, and boundless, and fertile coun- 
try to the United States, with an express stipulation, in eftect, that 
not an acre of it should ever enure to the benefit uf any man from 
Virginia, were as respectable, and kind hearted, and hospitable, and 
polished, and guileless Virginia gentlemen, as ever were cheated 
out of their estates by their overseers; men who, as long as they 
could comniaiid the means, by sale of their last acre, or last negro, 
would have a good dinner, and give a hearty welcome to whomso- 
ever chose to drop in, to eat, friend or stranger, bidden or unbid- 
den. What will be the effect of this bill on the Southern states.^* 
The effect of this policy is, what I shudder to look at; the more, be- 
cause the next census is held up in terrorem over us. We are told, *^ 
you had better consent to this — we are not threatened exactly with 
General Gage and the Boston Port bill — but we are told by gentle- 
men, we shall, after the next census, so saddle, and bridle, and 
martingale you, that you will be easily regulated by any bit, or 
whip, however severe, or spurs, however rank, of domestic manu- 
facture, that we choose to use. But this argument, sir, has no 
weight in it with nie. I do not choose to be rubbed now, becaufee, 
after I am once robbed, it will berome e^isier to rob me again. Obsta- 
principiis, i^ my maxim — because every act of extension of the sys- 
tem operates in a two-fold way, decreasing the strength and means 
of the robbee, and increasing those of the robber. This is as true 
as any proposition in mathematics. Gentlemen need not tell us, 
we had better give in at once. No, sir, we shall not give in; no, 
we shall hold out — we shall not give in. We do not mean to be 
threatened out of our rights by the menace of another census., We 
are aware of our folly, and it is our business to provide against the 
consequences of it, but not in this way. When 1 recollect, that the 
tariff of 1816 was followed by that of 1819-20, and that by this mea- 
sure of 1823-24, I cannot believe tha* we are at any time hereafter, 
long to be exempt from the demands of these sturdy beggars, who 
will take no denial. Every concession does but render every fresh 
demand and new concession more easy. It is like those dastard na- 
tions who vainly think to buy peace. When I look back to what 
the country of which I am a representative was, and when 1 see what 
it is — when I recollect the expression of Lord Cornwallis, applied 
to Virginia, "that great and unterrified colony," which he was about 
to enter, not without some misgivings of his mind as to the result of 
the invasion— when I compare whatslie was when this House of Re- 
presentatives first assembled in the city of New York, and what she 
now is, I know, by the disastrous contrast, that her councils have not 
been governed by statesmen. They might be admirable professors 
of a university, powerful dialecticians ex cathedra, but no sound 
counsels of wise statesmen could ever lead to such practical ill re- 
sults as are exhibited by a comparison of the past and present con- 
dition of the ancient colony and dominion of Virginia. 

In the course of this discussion, said Mr. R. I have heard, I will 
not say with surprise, because ni! admirari^ is my motto — no doc- 



44 . 

trine that can be broached «n this floor can ever, liereaf'ter, excite 
surprise in my mind — I have heard the names of Say, Ganilh, Adam 
Smith, and Ricardo, pronounced, not only in terms, but in a tone, of 
sneering contempt, as visionary theorists, destitute of practical wis- 
dom, and the whole clan of Scotch and Quarterly reviewers lug<;ed 
in to boot. This, sir, is a sweeping clause of proscription. With 
the names of Say, Smith, and Ganilh, I profess to be acquainted, 
for I, too, am versed in title pages, but I did not expect to hear, in 
this House, a name, with which I am a little further acquainted, 
treated with so little ceremony, and by whom.? I leave Adam Smith 
to the simplicity, and majesty, and strength of his own native genius 
which has canonized his name — a name which will be pronounced 
with veneration, when not one name in this House will be remem- 
bered. But, one word as to Ricardo, the last mentioned of these 
writers — a new authority, though the grave has already closed upon 
liim, and set its seal upon his reputation, I shall speak of him in the 
language of a man of as great a genius as this, or perhaps any, age 
has ever produced — a man remarkable for the depth of his reflections 
and the acumen of his penetration ' I had been led,' says this man, 
' to look into loads of bookS' — my understanding had for too many 
'years been intimate with severe thinkers, with logic, and the great 

* masters of knowledge, not to be aware of the utter feebleness of the 

* herd of modern economists. I sometimes read chapters from more 
' recent works, or part of Parliamentary debates. I saw that these 
[ominous words!] * were generally the very dregs and rinsings of the 

* human intellect.' [I am very glad, sir, he did not read our debates. 
What would he have said of ours.*^] — * At length a friend sent me Mr. 

* Ricardo's book, and recurring to my own prophetic anticipation of 

* the advent of some legislator on this science, I said, Thou art the 

* man. Wonder and curiosity had long been dead in me; yetl won- 

* dered once more. Had this profound work been really written in 

* England during the 19th century? Could it be that an Englishman, 

* and he not in academic bowers, but oppressed by mercantile and se- 
' natorial cares, had accomplished what all the universities and a cen- 
' tury of thought had failed to advance by one hair's breadth? All 

* other writers had been crushed and overlaid by the enormous weight 

* of facts and documents; Mr. Ricardo had deduced, a priori, from 
' the understanding itself^ laws which first gave a ray of light into 

* the unwieldy chaos of materials, and had constructed what had been 
' but a collection of tentitive discussions, into a science of regular 

* proportions, now first standing on an eternal basis.' 

I pronounce no opinion of my own, said Mr. R., on Ricardo; I re- 
cur rather to the opinion of a man, inferior in point of original and 
native genius, and that highly cultivated, too, to none of the moderns, 
and few of the ancients. Upon this subject, what shall we say to the 
following fact? Butler, who is known to gentlemen of the profession 
of the law, as the annotator, with Hargrave, on Lord Coke, speaking 
with Fox as to political economy — that most extraordinary man, 
unrivalled for his powers of debate, excelled by no man that ever 



45 

lived, or probably ever will live, as a public debater, and of the deep- 
est of political erudition, fairly confesse«l that he had never read 
Adam Smith. Butier said to Mr. Fox " that he had never read Adam 
Smith's work on the Wealth of Nations." " To tell you the truth," 
replied Mr. Fox, "nor 1 neither. There is something in all these sub- 
jects t'.iat passes my comprehension — something s»» wide that I could 
never embrace them myself, or find any one who did." And yet we 
see how we, with our little dividers, undertake to lay oft' the scale, 
and wifh our pack-thread to take the soundings, and speak with a con- 
fid^nce peculiar to quacks (in which the regular bred professor ne- 
ver indulges) on this abstruse and perplexing subject. Confidence 
is one thing, knowledge another; of the want of which, overweening 
confidence is notoriously the indication. What of that.? LetGanilh, 
Say, Ilicard(». Smith — all Grrek and Woman fame b^ against us — 
we appeal to Dionysius in support of our doctrines; and to him not on 
the throne of Syracuse but at Corinth — not in absolute possession of 
that most wonderful and enigmatical city, as rlifficult to comprehend 
as the abstrusest problem of political economy, which furnished not 
only the means but the men for supporting the greatest wars — a king- 
dom within itself, under whose ascendant the genius of Athens, in 
her most high and palmy state, quailed, and stood rebuked. No; we 
follow the pedagogue to the schools — dictating in the classic shades 
of Longwood — {jucus a non lucendo) — to his disciples. 

We have been told that the economists are right in theory and 
wrong in practice; which is as much as to say, that two bodies occupy 
at the same time the same space; for it is equally impracticable to be 
right in theoryand wrong in practice. It is easy to be wrong in i.ractice; 
but if our practice corresponds with our theory, it is a solecism to say 
that we can be right in the one and wrong in the other. As for 
Alexander and Cjesar, said Mr. R., I have as little respect for their 
memory as is consistent with that involuntary homage which all must 
pay to men of their prowess and abilities; and if Alexander had 
suffered himself to be led by the nose out of Babylon and banished 
to Sinope, or if Caesar had suffered himself to be deprived of his im- 
perial sway, not by the dagger of the assassin, but by his own sla- 
vish fears, I should have as little respect for their momory as for that 
of him whose example has on this occasion been held up to us for 
admiration. Speaking of that man who has kept me awake night 
after night, and has beea to me an incubus by day, for fear of the 
vastness of his designs, I cannot conceive of a spectacle so pitiful, 
so despicable, as that man, under those circumstances; and if the 
work dictated by him at St. Helena be read with the slightest attent 
tion, no forsworn witness at the Old Bailey was ever detected in so 
many contradictions as he has been gudty of. No, sir, the Jupiter 
from whose reluctant hand the thunder-bolt is wrung, is not the one 
at whose shrine I worship — not that I think that the true Amphitrion 
is always him with whom we dine — he is not the political economist 
who is to take place of Smith and Ricardo. Will any man make me 
believe that he understood the, theory or the pia^ tice of p^ditical 
economy better than these men, or than Charles Fox.'' Impossible. 



46 

When I recollect what that man might have done for liberty, and 
what hi^ did; when I recollect that to him we owe this Holy Alliance 
—this fearful power of Russia— of Russia, where I should advise per- 
sons to g;o who desired to be instructed in petty treason by the mur- 
der of a husband, or in parricide by the murder of a father, but from 
whom I should never tliink of taking a lesson in political economy— 
to whom I would say, rather, pay your debts, not in depreciated pa- 
per; do not commit daUy acts of bankruptcy; restore your currency: 
practise on the principles of liberality and justice, and then I will 
listen to you — No, sir, Russia may, if she pleases, not only lay hea- 
Ty duties on imports; she may prohibit them if she pleases; she has 
nothing to export but what some other inland countries have, politi- 
cal power — physical, to be sure, as well as intellectual power — but 
she does not even dare to attack the Turk: she cannot stir: she is 
something like some of our interior people of the South, who have 
plenty of land, plenty of serfs, smoke-houses filled with meat, and 
very fine horses to ride, but who, when they go abroad, have not one 
shilling to bless themselves with: and so long as she is at peace, and 
does not trouble the rest of the world, so long she may be sutfered to 
remain: but, if she should continue to act hereafter as she has done 
heretofore, it will be the interest of the civilized world to procure her 
dismemberment, per fas met nefas. 

But it is said, a measure of this sort is necessary to create em- 
ployment for the people. "Why, sir, where are the handles of the 
plough? Are they unfit for young gentlemen to touch? Or will they 
rather choose to enter your military academies, where the sons of the 
rich are educated at the expense of the poor, and where so many po- 
litical Janissaries are every year turned out, always ready for war, 
and to support the powers that be — equal to the Strelitz.es of Mos- 
cow or St. Petersburg. I do not speak now of individuals, of course, 
but of the tendency of the system — the hounds follow the huntsman 
because he feeds them, and bears the whip. I speak of the system. 
I concur most heartily, sir, in the censure which has been passed up- 
on the greediness of office, which stands a stigma on the present gen- 
eration. Men from whom wo might expect, and from whom 1 did 
^' expect better things, crowd the antichamiier of the palace, for every 

vacant office; nay, even before men are dead, their shoes are wanted 
for some bare-footed office-seeker. How mistaken was the old Ro- 
man, the old Consul, who, whilst he held the plough by one hand, 
and death held the other, exclaimed, " Diis im'iwrtalibus seroP^ 

Our fathers, how did they acquire their property? Bv straight for- 
ward industry, rectitude, and frugality. How did they become dis- 
possessed of their property? By indulging in speculative hopi-s and 
designs, seeking the shadow whilst they lost the substance; and now, 
instead of being, as they were, men of respectability, men of sub- 
stance, men capable and willing to live independently and honestly, 
ami hospitably too — for who so parsimonious as the prodigal who 
has nothing to give — What have we become? A nation of sharks, 
preying on one another, proving on one another through the instru- 
mentality of this paper system, vrhich, if Lycurgus had known of it 






47 

he would unquestionably' have adopted, in preference to his iron 
money, if his object had been to make the Spartans the most accom- 
plished knaves, as well as to keep them poor. 

But, we are told this is a curious constitution of ours: it is made 
for foreigners and not for ourselves — for tlie protection of foreign, 
and not "of American industry. Sir, this is a curious constitution of 
ours, said Mr. R.; and if 1 were disposed to deny it, I could not suc- 
ceed. It is an anomaly in itself. It is that supposed impossibility 
of all writers, from Aristotle to the present day, an imperiian in im- 
yierio. Nothing like it ever did exist, or possibly ever vvill, under 
similar circumstances. It is a constitution consisting of confede- 
rated bodies, for certain exterior purposes, and, also, for some in- 
terior purposes, but leaving to the State authorities, among a 
great many powers, the very one which we now propose to exer- 
cise: for, if we were now passing a revenue bill — a bill, the object 
of which were to raise revenue — however much I should deny 
the policy, and however I could demonstrate the futility of the 
plan, I still should deem it to be a constitutional bill— a bill passed 
to carry, bonajide, into effect, a provision of the Constitution, but a 
bill passed with short-sighted views. But this is no such bill. It is 
a bill, under pretence of regulating commerce, to take money from 
the pockets of a very large, and, I thank God, contiguous territory, 
and to put it into other pockets. One word, sir, on that point; — I 
can assure the gentlemen whose appetites are so keenly whetted for 
our money — I trust, at least, that if this bill passes, there will be a 
meeting of the members opposed to it, and a general and consenta- 
neous resistance to its operation throughout the v. hole Southern coun- 
try — and we shall make it by lawful means; quant a nous, the law 
will be a dead letter. It shall be to me, at least, as innocuous as the 
pill of the empyric, which I am determined not to swallow. The 
manufacturer of the East may carry his woollens, or his cottons, or 
his coffins, to what market he pleases — I do not buy of him. Self- 
defence is the first law of nature. You drive us into it. You create 
heats and animosities amongst this great family, who ought to live 
like brothers; and, after you have got this temper of mind roused 
among the Southern people, do you expect to come among us to trade, 
and expect us to buy your wares? Sir, not only shall we not buy 
them, but we shall take such measures (I will not enter into the de- 
tail of them now,) as shall render it impossible for you to sell them. 
Whatever may be said here, of the "misguided counsels," as they 
have been termed, " of the theorists of Virginia," they have, so far 
as regards this question, the confidence of united Virginia. \^'e 
are asked — does the South lose any thing by this bill — why do you 
cry out.^ I put it, sir, to any man, from any part of the country, from 
the Gulf of Mexico, from the Balize, to the Eastern shore of Mary- 
land—which, I thank heaven, is not yet under the government ol 
Baltimore, and will not be, unless certain theories should come into 
play in that State, which we have lately heard of, and a majority of 
nien, told by the head, should govern — whether the whole country, 
between the points I have named, is not unanimous in opposition to 



48 

this bill. Would it n6t be unexampled, that we should thus complain, 
prott'st, resist, and that all the while nothing should be the matter? 
Are ur understandings (however low mine may be rated, much 
sounder than mine are engaged in this resistance,) to be rated so low* 
as that we are to be made to believe that we are children affrighted 
by a bug-beitr? We are asked, however, why do you cry out? — it is 
all for your good. Sir, this reminds me of the mistresses of George 
II. who, when "they were insulted by the populace on arri- **Qg in Lon- 
don, (as all such creatures deserve to be, by every mob,; put their 
hends dut of the window, and said to them, in their broken English, 
" Goat people, ive be come for your goois;" to which one of the mob 
i-ejoined — " Yes, and for our chattels too, I fancy." Just so it is 
with tlie oppressive exactions proposed and advocated by the sup- 
porters of this bill, on the plea of the good of those who are its vic- 
tims. 

There is not a member of this House, said Mr. R., more deeply 
penetrated than the one who is endeavoring;, to address you, with the 
inadequate manner in which he hasilischarged the task imposed upon 
him — in this instance, he will say, on his part, most reluctantly. But, 
as I have been all my life a smatterer in history, I cannot fail to be 
struck with the iitness of the comparison instituted by a historian of 
tliis country with the Roman republic, just as it was in a state of pre- 
paration for a master. 

" Sed, postquam luxu, atque desidia civitas corrupta est; rursus 
respublica, magnitudine sua, imjeratorum atque magistratuum vitia 
sustentabat; ac veluti effoeta parentum, multis tempestatibus, baud 
sane quisquam Rooife virtute magnus fuit." 

Of this quotation, I will, as they sometimes say in the Parliament, 
for the benefit of the country gentlemen, attempt a translation. 
" But, after th.? state had become corrupted by luxury and sloth" — 
in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, we are told of one who laid 
by his sequins in good money, and when he afterwards came to use 
them, he found them to be bits of paper, not worth more than old 
continental (or Kentucky) money — "by luxury and sloth, again the 
republic," — and ha-e I press the comparison — " by dint of its own 
magnitude, its own greatness, its own vastness, bore up under the 
faults, the vices, of its generals, magistrates, and that, too, as if 
effete — (past bearing) since, for a long while" — I hope the corapaiison 
will not hold here — " for a long time scarcely any man had become 
great at Rome by his merit." So, sir, it is with this republic. It 
does sustain, by its greatness and growing magnitude, the follies and 
vices of its magistracy. Had this government been stationary like 
any of the old governments of Kurope, of the second class, Prussia 
for instance, or Holland, by the political evolutions of the last thir- 
ty years — I might say the last twelve years — it would have sunk into 
insignificance and debili'y: and it is only upon this resource, the 
mcreasino- greatness of this republic, that the blunderers who plunge 
blindfold into schemes like this, can rely for any possibility of i^alva- 
tion from the effect of their own rash, undigested measures. It is 
true, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the stropg; 



# 



49 

and elsewhere than in the republic of Rome and of other times, than 
the days of Catiline, it may be said, " Haud sane quisque virtute 
mugnus est." 

"'Tis not in mortals to command success! — 

But do yo7i more Sempronius! — f/o;i7 deserve it. 
And take my word you won't liave any less; 

Be wary, watch the time, and always serve it: , 

Give gentle way when there's too great a press; 

And for your conscience only learn to nerve it, — 
For, like a racer, or a boxer, training, 
'Twill make, if proved, vast efforts without paining." 

■I had more to say, Mr. Speaker, could I have said it, on this sub- 
ject. But I cannot sit down without asking those, who were once 
my brethren of the church, the elders in the young family of tliiS 
good old republic of the thirteen states, if they can consent to rivet, 
upon us this system, from which no benefit can possibly result to 
themselves. I put it to them as descendants of the renowned colo- 
ny of Virginia — as children sprung from her loins — if, for the sake of 
all the benefits with which this bill is pretended to be freighted to 
them — granting such to bsthe fact, for argument's sake — they could 
consent to do such an act of violence to the unanimous opinion, feel- 
ings, prejudices, if you will, of the whole southern states, as to psss 
it? I go farther. I ask of them what is there in the condition of the 
nation, at this time, that calls for the immediate adoption of this mea- 
sure.^ Are the Gauls at the gate of the Capitol.^ If they are, the 
cacklings of the Capitoline geese will hardly save it. What is there 
to induce us to plunge into the vortex of those evils so severely felt 
in Europe from this very manufacturing and paper-policy? For, it 
is evident that, if we go into this system of policy, we must adopt 
the European institutions also. We have very good materials to 
work with — We have only to make our elective King, President for 
life, in the first place, and then to make the succession hereditary in 
the family of the first that shall happen to have a promising son. 
For a King we can be at no loss — ex quovis lisno — any block will <lo 
for him. The Senate may, perhaps, be transmuted into a House of 
Peers, although we should meet with more difficulty than in the 
other case: for, Bonaparte himself was not njore hardly put to it, 
to recruit the ranks of his mushroom-nobility, than we should be to 
furnish a House of Peers. As for us, we are the faithful Commons, 
ready made to hand; but with all our loyalty, I congratulate the 
House — I congratulate the nation — that, although this body is daily 
degraded by the sight of members of Congress manufactured into 
placemen, we have not yet reached such a point of degradation as to 
submit to suffer Executive minions to be manufactured into members 
of Congress. We have shut that door; I wish we could shut the 
other also. I wish we could have a perpetual call of the House in 
this view, and suffer no one to go out from its closed doors. The time, 
Mr. H. said, was peculiarly inauspicious fu- the change in our policy 
which is proposed by this bill. We are on tlie eve of an election 
that promises to be the most distracted that this nation has ever yet 



50 

undergone. It may turn out to be a Polish election. At such a 
time, ought any measure to be brought forward which is supposed to 
be capable of being demonstrated to be extremely injurious to one 
great portion of this country, and beneficial in proportion to another? 
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. There are firebrands enough 
in the land, without this apple of discord being cast into this assem- 
bly. Suppose this measure is not what it is represented to be; that 
the fears of the south are altogether illusory and vissionary; that it 
■will produce all the good predicted of it — an honorable gentleman 
from Kentucky, said, yesterday, and I was sorry to hear it, for I 
have great respect for that gentleman, and for other gentlemen from 
that state — that the question was not whether a bare majority should 
pass the bill, but whether the majority or minority should rule. The 
gentleman is wrong, and if he will consider the matter rightly, he 
will see it. Is there no difference between the patient and the ac- 
tor.'* fFc are passive: we do not call upon them to act or to suffer, 
but we call upon them not so to act as that we must necessarily 
suffer: and I venture to say, that in any government properly con- 
stituted, this very consideration would operate conclusively, that, if 
this burden is to be laid on 102, it ought not to belaid by 105. We 
are the eel that is being flayed, while the cook -maid pats us on the 
head, and cries, with the clown in King Lear, " down, wantons, 
down." There is but one portion of the country which can profit 
by this bill, and from that portion of the country comes this bare 
majority in favor of it. I bless God that Massachusetts and old 
Virginia are once again rallying under the same banner, against op- 
pressive arid unconstitutional taxation: for, if all the blood be drawn 
from out the body, I care not whether it be by the British Parlia- 
ment or the American Congress — by an Emperor or a King abroad, 
or by a President at home. 

Under these views, and with feelings of mortification and shame 
at the very weak opposition I have been able to make to this bill, I 
entreat gentlemen to consent that it may lie over, at least, until the 
next session of Congress. We have other business to attend to, and 
our families and affairs need our attention at home — and indeed I, sir, 
Avould not give one farthing for any man who prefers being here to 
being at home — who is a good public man and a bad private one. With 
these views and feelings, I move you, sir, that the bill be indefinitely 
postponed. 



House of Representatives, April 8. 

On the motion to reduce the duties on coarse woollens — 
Mil. RANDOLPH expressed his surprise that the votaries of hu- 
manity — persons who could not sleep, such was their distress of 
mind at the very existence of negro slavery — should persist in press- 
ing a measure, the effect of which was to aggravate the misery of 
that unhappy condition — whether viewed in reference to tlie slave or 
to his master — if he were a man possessing a single spark of humanity — 



51 

for, what could be more pitiable than the situation of a man who' had 
every desire to clothe his negroes comfortably — but who was ab- 
solutely prohibited from so doing by legislative enactment? He 
hoped that none of those who wished to enhance to the poor slave (or 
what was the same thing — to his master) the price of his annual 
blanket, and of his sordid suit of coarse, but, to him, comfortable 
woollen cloth — would ever travel through the southern country to 
spy out the nakedness, if not of the land, of the cultivators of the 
soil. It was notorious that the profits of slave labor had been, for 
a long time, oh the decrease, and that, on a fair average, it scarcely 
reimbursed the expense of tlie slave, including the helpless ones, 
whether from infancy or age. The words of Patrick Henry, in the 
Convention of Virginia, still rung in his ears: "They may liberate 
every one of your slaves. The Congress possess the power and will 
exercise it." Now, sir, the first step towards this consummation, 
so devoutly wished by many, is to pass such laws as may yet still 
further diminish the pittance which their labor yields to their unfor- 
tunate masters. To produce such a state of things as will ensure, in 
case the slave shall not elope from his master — his master will run 
away from him. Sir, the blindness, as it appears to me — I hope gen- 
tlemen will pardon the expression — with which a certain quarter of 
this country — I allude particularly to the seaboard of South Carolina 
and Georgia — has lent its aid to increase the powers of the general 
government on points — to say the least, of doubtful construction — fills - ^ 
jne with astonishment and dismay. And 1 look forward, almost with- * 
out a ray of hope, to the time which the next census, or that which 
succeeds it, will assuredly bring forth — when this work of destruction 
and devastation is to commence in the abused name of humanity and 
religion — and when the imploring eyes of some will be, as now, 
turned towards another body, in the vain hope that it may arrest the 
evil and stay the plague. 



House of Representatives, April 12. 

MR. RANDOLPH said, that if the House would lend him its at- 
tention for five minutes, he thought he could demonstrate that the 
argument of tlie gentleman from JDelaware. in favor of the increased 
duty on brown sugar, was one of the most suicidal arguments that 
ever reared it's spectral front in a deliberative assembly. 

The gentleman objects to reducing the duty on sugar, because it 
will diminish the revenue, which he says we cannot dispense with— 
and yet he wishes to continue it as a bounty of S3 per 100 lbs. 
(not the long hundred of 112 lbs.,) until the sugar planting and sugar 
manufacture should be extended, so as to supply the whole demand of 
our consumption. Then, what becomes of the revenue from sugar, 
that we cannot dispense with? This is what I call a suicidal argu- 
ment — It destroys itself. 

But, we must not reduce the duty to what it stood at, only eight 



52 

years a^o, because it will injure the sale of the public lands— Yes, sir ^ 
the public lands! for which, sold or unsold, we never get paid. The 
gentleman would persuade us that we arc under obligation to such 
purchasers as bought the sugar lands under the existing duty — and 
how many sugar estates have been established on lands bought of the 
public — and since the year 1816, too? ."Sir, thi-t arguinentof obligation 
to tax ourselves, for the profit of these overgrown su^ar planters, 
will not hold water — It will not even hold cotton. — [Mr. Tod's re- 
iterated motions to enhance the tax on cotton bagging, had just suc- 
ceeded by the Speaker's casting vote.] \V\* are not to reduce tie 
duty on sugar, for fear of injuring the sale of the public lands, for 
which, although we may obtain nominal payment, we shall never re- 
ceive one penny. 

[Mr. McLane, at the commencement of his reply, appearing to be 
much irritated, Mr. Randolph rose and assured him that he intend- 
ed not the slightest person I disrespect or oftence — but Mr. McLane 
went on to say that the gentleman from Virginia had displayed a good 
liead — but he would not accept that gentleman's head, to be obliged 
to have his heart along with it.] 

Mr. Randolph replied. 

Tt costs me nothing, sir, to say that I very much regret that the 
zeal which I have not only felt but cherished, on the subject of laying 
taxes in a manner which, in my judgment, is inconsistent, not mere- 
ly with the spirit, but the very letter of the constitution — should have 
given to my remarks, on this subject, a pungency, which has rendered 
them disagreable, and even offensive to the gentleman from Dela- 
ware. For that gentleman I have never expressed any other senti- 
ment but respect — I have never uttered, or entertained, an unkind 
feeling towards that gentleman, either in this House or elsewhere-— 
nor do I now feel any such sentiment towards him — I never pressed 
my regard upon him — I press it upon no man. He appears to 
have considered my remarks as having a personal application to him- 
self I certainly did not intend to give them that direction, and I 
think that my prompt disclaimer of any such intention ought to have 
disarmed his resentment, howeverjustly it may have been excited. 
He has been pleased, sir, to say something, which, no doubt, he 
thinks very severe, about my head and my heart. 

Howeasv, sir, would it be for me to reverse the gentleman's pro- 
position, and to retort upon him, that I would not, in return, take 
that gentleman's heart, however good it may be, if obliged to take 
such a head into the bargain. 

But, sir, I do not think this — I never thought it — and, therefore, I 
cannot be so ungenerous as to say it: for, Mr. Speaker, who made me 
a searcher of hearts!^ — of the heart of a fellow man, a fellow sinner.'' 
Sir, this is an awful sulyect! better suited to Frida; or Sunday next, 
[Good Friday and Easter Sunday,] two of the most solemn days in 
the Christian calendar — when 1 hope we shall all consider it, and 
lay it to heart as we ought to do. 

But, sir, I must still maintain tliat the argument of the gcnthman 
is suicidal — he has fairly worked the equation, and one half of his ar- 



63 

g;ument is a complete and conclusive answer to th« other. And, sir, il 
I should ever be so unfortunate as, through inadvertence, or the heat of 
debate, to fall into such an error, I should, so far from being offended, 
feel myself under obligation to any gentleman who would expose its fal- 
lacy, even by ridicule' — as fair a weapon as any in the whole Parliamen- 
tary armory. I shall not go so far as to maintain, with my Lord Shafts- 
bury, that it is the unerring test of truth, whatever it may be of tem- 
per — but if it be proscribed as a weapon as unfair as it is confessedly 
powerful, what shall we say (I put it, sir, to you, and to the House,) 
to the poisoned arrow?— to the tomahawk and the scalping knife. 
Could the most unsparing use of ridicule justify a resort to these wea- 
pons? Was this a reason that the gentleman should sit in judgment on 
my heart? — yes, sir, my heart — which the gentleman, (whatever he 
may say.) in his heart believes to be a frank heart, as I trust it is a 
brave heart. Sir, I dismiss the gentleman to his self-complacency — 
let him go — yes, sir, let him go — and thank his God that he is not as 
this Publican. 



In the House of Representatives, April 13. 

I rise, sir, for the purpose of offering to the consideration of this 
House an amendment to the bill before them, which nothing but an 
imperious sense of duty could have induced me, rebus exidentibun^ 
to propose. It will be recollected that, in the year 1816, an addi- 
tional duty was laid on brown sugar. My present object is to reduce 
*^lie duty to what it then was. 1 shall not take up the time of tlie 
House — I never have done it — in discussing the general principles of 
any bill on the consideration of its details. We all know the depre- 
ciation of money which has taken place since 1816: that revulsion 
in the pecuniary concerns of this country, many of us, in our own per* 
sons, and all of us in the persons of our friends, yet live to deplore,i 
Sir, what was the comparative value of money then and at present? 
Do we not all knovv that at that time a duty of 6 cents per lb. on 
sugar would not have been as much felt as a duty of 3 cents is felt 
now? Sir, there was not a man, with the exception, perhaps, of a 
few miserable usurers and muckworms, who could not then get gG 
easier than he now can get 3. For myself, 1 could more easily have 
paid g3 at that time, than I can pay SI to-day. Sir, the demon of 
speculation had taken possession of the public mind — the bubble, 
not, sir, of the South Sea or the Mississippi, but one every whit asr 
mischievous — was then fully blown to its utmost expansion, and was 
near bursting. Yet the duty on this article — an article we are all 
obliged to consume; in its necessity next to the articles of salt and 
iron, in universal demand; and entering into the food of the poorest 
man in the community, would not have been as great, in proportion 
to the value of money — at S6 then, as it is now at S3. Sir, I want to 
know on what principle it is that the sugar planter, who gets his, 
mules, his stave-timber, the provisions for his slaves at the first hand 
and on the cheapest possible terms, cannot be satisfied with a protec- 
tion — (the word is not mine; I disclaim every thing of (he kind, but 
I use it in gentlemen's own sense of the term.)— yes sir a protection 

8 



54 

of 2^ cents a pound on their' sugar? Sir we have had a practical^ 
commentary in the success of the last amendment, (Mr. Tod's, on 
cottcm bagging,) on the effects of perseverance: I hope we shall 
profit by it; I nope it will animate, especially, every opponent of the 
bill to keep the faith; to fight the good fight, and to hold out to the end. 
[Here Mr. Brent interposed.] 

Sir, I have not yet done. My proposition, sir, is 'not to lay a tax, 
but to take one off". But, from the efteci it seems to produce, I could 
really think that by seme necromantic process, I had been suddenly 
transferred to a Chamber of Deputies, or to a British House of Com- 
mons, to the deliberative hall of some one of the older — I will not say 
the more corrupt — I disclaim the imputation— but one of the older and 
more mtute governments of Europe. Sir, I am wrong. I rather 
could wish I was thus transferred: for, in the British Parliament, I 
should see duties reduced to less than one half of their former amount; 
not indeed from choice, sir, for power is sweet, and so is money; but 
the British ministry have been driven to the reduction, and on the 
necessary article of salt, seven eighths of the duty has been taken oft', 
and they are pledged to repeal the remainder. But here, sir, by some 
strange conjunction of the planets — for evidently it cannot have been 
by any constellation beingin opposition — a most extraordinary effect 
has been produced. In this most popular branch of the most popular 
government in the world, we, who come immediately from the peo- 
ple, vvhose arteries may be expected to pulsate and keep measure 
with tlieir own, instantly become extremely fastidious, so soon as any 
proposal is made, the object of which is to lessen the burthens of the 
country. Sir, were it notas plain as the noon day sun, I would quote 
high authority in this House, to prove what I have said of the dis- 
tresses of" the country. Sir, the very stamp act itself could hardly 
throw us into a greater flame than a proposal to diminish any of the 
faxes — aye, sir, or our own emolument, seems to excite in this house. 
But as it is a feeling in which I do not participate, as my feelings 
run in quite another direction, I find myself quite cool; never more 
unmoved in my life; for if, as I have some reason to fear, the tax 
shall not be reduced, I, sir, shall pay as little of it as any man. 



v;*i»'. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE 1. 

I ought to have excepted Albeit Gallatin, " the apostle of Truth, anjl the 
favorite votary of Liberty," as he was liailed by the companion of my early 
manhood. This gentleman might say, of the place in which he finds himself, 
what was said of a certain Doge of Genoa, I think, whom the arrogance of Louis 
XIV. ordered to Paris to make an apology, in his own person, for some ©flence 
on the part of that once proud repubhc, against the dignity of the Grand Mo- 
narque. 

Had Montgomery, instead of falling on the heights of Abraham— where 
Montcalm and Wolfe, congenial spirits, also 

■■ "forsook 

Their mansions in this fleshly nook" 
survived to see the revolution of 1788—9, brought about, would it have eycv 
been objected to him, that, by birth, he was an Irishman? Would his foreign 
descent have stood in the way of his other claims to the chief magisUacy ci 
the country? 

Were Mr. Gallatin a French or Englishman, there would be some color to 
this objection. But he is a native of Geneva,^and no good Genevese can wor- 
ship at the shrine of a Bonaparte, or a Bourbon. I think it must be his citizen- 
ship of Virginia that stands mostly in the way of the elevation of this extra- 
ordinary man, who sees himsslf postponed to persons in no respect consi- 
derable, except for the modesty of their pretensions, who have never, and can 
never, render a tithe of his public services, and whose names were not known 
out of their own parish, so late as the acquisition of Louisiana, and the com- 
mencement of Mr. Jefferson's second term of Presidential service. 

No foreigner, be it remembered, can ever become President, who was not a 
citizen at the time of the adoption of the new constitution of l/Sr. The door 
will soon be closed against them forever, be their merits and services what 
they may. 

. .^.m. N0TE2< 

The principal of the debt proper of the United States, was funded at 6 pev 
cent, but the payment of one third was postponed tor ten years. 

The interest, the evidences of which were called " indents cf interest," was 
funded at 3 per cent. 

Of the assumed debt, one-third was taken, on estimate, to be the amount oi 
Interest due upon it, which, at the time, could not be ascertained; and, also, 
funded at 3 per cent. 

These two sums constitute the 3 per cent, stock of the United States. 
• Of the remaining two-thirds of the assumed debt, two-tliirds, being the es- 
timated amount of principal, equal to 2s. 8d, Virginia money, to a dollar, were 
ftinded.at 6 per cent.; and the remainder (one-third of two-thirds, or \s. Ad. 
Virginia money, on the dollar) was also fniuled.. at 6 per cent, but tlie paymcn; 
postponed in like inanntr,as on the debt proper of the United States. 



56 

This is tlie origin of the term deferred stock, in our Iaw» and financial state' 
ments. 

One-third of the dollar ...... =2 

taken as interest and funded at 3 per cent. 
Two thirds of the remaininpf4» = 2s. 8(/. al 6per cent, • • 2 8 
1-3 of 2-3 or i deferred — also at 6 per cent. - - - . 14 

«. 6 



NOTE 3. 

l-rom tl)i9 admission I feel myself compelled to except the opinions, however 
long established, as to the impolicy of the expulsion of the Morescoes from Spain, 
and of the Hug-o^nots from France by the revocation of tlie edict of J\~antz. 
I'fever having been " achlictits jurare in verba mag-i&tri," I have long ago 
taught myself to believe, that the alleged imjiolicy of these two celebrated 
measures (which I have never heard called in question by any autliority what- 
soever, ) is one of those " vulgar errors" that ought to go to swell the catalogue 
of tlie ingenious Sir Thomas Brown. From the institution of the Passover to 
ihe latest experience of man, it will be found that two essentially different and 
hostile nations cannot peaceably and advantageously inhabit the same terri- 
tory, and live vuuler the same form of government. I have been led to ascribe 
the subsequent grandeur and power of France, mainly to the removal of this 
fruitful source of schism and of weakness. Had the Protestants remained in 
the boBoni of F'rance, their superior industry and intelligence would speedily 
have raised them to a level with their Catholic enemies and fellow subjects; 
and tlie seeds of incurable division and weakness, would thus have been sown, 
never to be eradicated. 

AVith some millions of wealthy and exasperated Moriscees in her bosom, 
could Spain have made the stand she did against the power of Bonaparte? It 
is this whiq^ renders Ireland a dead weiglit upon England, instead of a powei- 
ful auxiliar)'. Would Virginia have been impoverished in case she had expel- 
led her black population, constituting the great mass of her productive labor 
at the peace of 1783? Suppose, instead of ceding her north western territory to 
Congress, she had, at the jieace of 1783. driven every negro and mulatto, bond 
or free, across the Ohio? Would she now, think you, be less populous or pow- 
erful than she is at present? Would she now be driven to the humiliation of 
receiting the law, and, perhaps, a master, from the congressional and electoral 
jnfluence bej'ond, not only the Ohio, but the Mississippi — beyond Aurora and 
tiie Ganges? 

I speak /)f the results, not of the motives, of those celebrated measures. 
Was the Ueformation not eminently beneficial to England, because it was ow- 
i>ig to the lewd passions and ungovernable caprices of a tyrant even more 
odious than Louis XIV. or Philip IV.? Were the motives of his over-grown 
subjects, greedy for the spoils o*" the church, panting for the plunder of the 
rich c/ Vys and bt'Tiejices, less infamous than those of their master? Is the Jack- 
all, who humbly receives the ofl«l carcase, when the hunger of the royal 
heast is appeased by its blood, distinguislied in any way to his advantage, from 
The monarch of the forest? 



57 

NOTE TO PAGE 40, 

It is a subject of much regret to me, that at this time I had not had the benefit 
of the very able speecli of liis successor in office, Mr Kobinson, which reached 
the United States a few days after. It ought to be reprinted in every leading- 
paper in the Union. 

With the good sense, hberality, manliness, and good faith, which character- 
ize the whole speech, he states, that Government is pledged to the abohtion 
of the small remnant of the salt tax; and if insisted on by the Opposition, the 
pledge shall be redeemed. He suggests, however, the poUcy of substituting 
eome other redviction in lieu of the small tax no\y payable on salt, which he 
conceives to be as liti?e burthensome at its present reduced rate, as any other, 
aiid more easy of colleciiqn. 



/ 



N 



NOTE 4. 



List of exports of domestic growth. 

Cotton. 

Tobacco. 

Rice. 

Indian cqrn — Exclusively Southern. 

Flour, vheat, &c. 
Lumber, 
Naval stores. 









>' 



■■'A 



^ 



«l^,. 



A 



id 



'^^>. 



" * 



■'^ 






'•V 



^'■^ 






